Murderous Intentions
by J.M.Wikiwuki
Summary: Three weeks after Nico is attacked mercilessly, and is injured, by Thiago, Carlos, and Maximiliano, Maximiliano attacks Nico and Pedro, only to be killed by his own carelessness. The other two eagles see them as the cause and want blood: Nico and Pedro's.
1. Not Your Fault

**This is a sequel to my first story, "Fight or Flight?" It is not necessary that you read it to understand what happens here, but if you want the details of what happened to Nico, and a better description of the three eagles, you should probably check that out first. So, enjoy the story, and please, leave a review, telling me what I can do better on, or just commenting on the story.**

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><p><strong>Murderous Intentions<strong>

Today, the beaches of Rio de Janeiro were at the peak of their beauty. The sky was completely clear of any clouds, the sun shining dominantly down upon the beaches. The temperature was at least ninety degrees. The water was as blue as ever, the sand as white as ever. The beaches swarmed with humans and birds alike, either relaxing in the warm sand or dipping into the cool ocean. The streets next to the beaches swarmed with cars and beach-goers alike. Yes, today was the perfect day for a visit to the beach.

However, Nico found it impossible to enjoy this perfect day. He and Pedro were flying over one of the sandy beaches, over its relaxing inhabitants. Pedro seemed to be basking in the warm glow of the sun, inhaling the intoxicating scent of the ocean breeze. Nico was the exact opposite. He couldn't go ten seconds without looking nervously over his shoulder, or darting his eyes in a paranoid fashion all around him, or jumping at the slightest noise. He was a mess.

Normally, Nico would be the first one to land on the sands of the beach, and mingle with chicks and grab a variety of different foods off of unsuspecting humans. He would normally be the first one to suggest that he and Pedro dive into the ocean and move their shenanigans underwater. Today, however, he refused to land. Every time Pedro hinted at or suggested that they land, Nico would make up a lame excuse: "I like the breeze up here," or "the sand is too hot," or "maybe later, but right now it's too crowded down there."

Pedro noticed Nico's unusually timid and paranoid attitude, which contrasted with his usually overconfident attitude. Every time Pedro would ask to go down to the beach, Nico would answer too quickly with an answer that, for Nico, made absolutely no sense. Nico never cared if the beach was too crowded. If anything, Nico loved the beach being crowded. That meant more mingling. It seemed as if Nico was afraid, watching for somebody, as if he was a gangster who owed someone powerful big money.

Pedro was worried. Nico rarely acted like this. When he did, something was wrong big time. Pedro remembered the last time Nico acted this paranoid: four years ago, Nico had fully converted his original nervous attitude to his newfound confident attitude, when he suddenly started acting nervous and paranoid again. Pedro figured it was just a phase or something, and that nothing serious would come out of it.

Boy, how wrong he was. One night, after leaving their new club, they had decided to walk down a dark alleyway (afterwards, Pedro had realized just how stupid and cliché that was). While walking down the alleyway, Pedro had stopped because he hit his foot on something painfully hard. When he looked up, Nico was gone. He called for Nico, and was returned with a panicked, half-cut-off scream, "PED—!"

Pedro had quickly located Nico in an adjacent alleyway, pinned down by a pelican twice his size, his wing covering Nico's beak, holding something shiny high over Nico's body with the other wing. Pedro had promptly tackled the pelican, and, using the element of surprise, knocked him out, the noise of the fight attracting Rafael; the toucan had coincidentally been flying nearby.

It turned out that this pelican had been stalking Nico for weeks, for reasons unknown, and that Nico's new independent attitude had prevented him from asking for help when he had begun to take notice. This decision had almost gotten Nico killed. The pelican had planned to pin Nico in the alleyway and stab him with the piece of glass, which he had held in his wing. Because of this incident, Pedro knew that Nico acting paranoid and timid could very well mean disaster.

It was for this reason that Pedro was concerned, and so, while flying, he turned his head towards Nico, and asked, with a concerned look in his face and a similar tone in his voice, "Nico, what's wrong, man?"

Nico, in the same paranoid fashion, turned his head sharply to Pedro, and quickly answered, "What? Paranoid? I'm not paranoid!" He nervously adjusted the bottle cap on his head—this was a habit of Nico's when he was nervous, Pedro had discovered—and quickly looked around him again.

Pedro donned an even more concerned look. "Uh… Nico, I never said you were paranoid."

Nico, who was more concerned with nervously surveying the landscape, barely heard Pedro; he turned his head to his cardinal friend and said, "What were you saying, Pedro? I didn't hear you." Almost instantly, he threw another glance over his shoulder.

Pedro rolled his eyes. "That's it, follow me!" And with no other explanation, he changed his flight path and flew to the left. Nico absent-mindedly followed him, until he realized that Pedro had flown over the street parallel to the beach and had landed on the ledge of a building overlooking the street.

"Uh, Pedro, why don't we keep flying—" Nico was obviously more nervous than ever. Now, it was completely obvious that he did not want to land.

"No, Nico." Pedro was unusually serious now. "He have to talk. _Now_."

Nico, startled by Pedro's sudden and unusual seriousness, reluctantly flew over to the rooftop and landed on the ledge, next to Pedro, adjusting his bottle cap nervously again.

Pedro turned to Nico, and, again, surprised Nico with another un-Pedro-like emotion: concern. A sincere, honest, burning-hot concern. It was written all over his beak and in his eyes.

Nico suddenly got worried. Pedro was never, _ever_ like this, unless he was really worried about something. So, Nico asked, "Pedro, what's wrong. Your never like this."

"I should be saying that to you," was Pedro's reply. "You've been acting weird all day since we've left the hollow. You keep looking over your shoulder, darting your eyes all over the place, refusing to land. You _need_ to tell me what's wrong, man."

Nico laughed an obviously fake laugh. "Pedro, nothing's wrong—"

Pedro wasn't falling for it. "Nico! Enough with the charade! I know _something's_ wrong. _Seriously_ wrong. I've known you for what's going on eight years, and the only time you've _ever_ acted this way, you almost got stabbed! I'm serious, tell me what is wrong."

They stood there, silent, for an awkward few seconds, Pedro looking concerned, yet seriously over at Nico, Nico looking nervously down at his shifting feet, nervously adjusting his bottle cap.

Nico was fighting with himself: should he really tell Pedro what was going on? He didn't want to appear weak in front of his best friend. However, Pedro was persistent and concerned. _Unusually_ persistent and concerned. In fact, now that Nico thought about it, Pedro had never acted _this_ concerned. Sure, he would fake concern sometimes, or sometimes, he would be a little concerned about Nico. But _never_ was he _this_ concerned. It seemed as if Pedro legitimately feared for Nico's life.

Nico was cut in half. One part of him argued, '_Don't tell him! He'll think you're weak!' _The other side of him argued, _'Tell him! You can trust him with anything! He can help you!'_ Nico's second half did have a point. He and Pedro had been best friends for years. They knew virtually everything about the other. One's business was the other's business. Why should he doubt that Pedro could help him?

So, sighing, he looked up from his feet, looked at Pedro, nervously turned his head slightly to the left, as to avoid eye contact with his friend, and, in almost a whisper, said, "The eagles."

Pedro was shocked. Sure, they had beaten the crap out of Nico about two weeks ago, but Pedro had never imagined Nico being afraid of anyone, those eagles included. "You mean Thiago and his gang?"

Nico nodded nervously, still avoiding eye contact with Pedro. "Yeah."

Three weeks ago, the three most feared eagles in Rio had trapped Nico in a dark alleyway in the middle of the night, while he was alone, and took their sweet time beating him up: kicking, cutting, everything they could do without killing him. Their names were Thiago—the leader and the most feared, and Carlos and Maximiliano—both part of Thiago's little, but still feared, gang. Since then, Nico had recovered physically, but not _entirely_ psychologically yet, and had mostly stayed in the confines of his and Pedro's hollow in the rainforest. This was the first time Nico had actually left the hollow, and it was obviously fraying his nerves.

At first, Nico hadn't been afraid of the eagles, and had rubbed it right in their faces. And they couldn't do anything about it because of Rafael, his infinite connections, and his friendship with Nico and Pedro—he was an admirable foe, a force to be reckoned with. Yet, Nico had pushed the eagles too far, and they had thrown all caution to the wind and gave Nico a very unpleasant experience.

Since Rafael had yet to take action against the eagles—since that would inevitably cost many lives, since the eagles, too, have many connections—the eagles had, as they put it, "called Rafael's bluff," and now, not even Nico and Pedro were safe—especially the (formerly) cheeky Nico, who Thiago harbored a special hatred for.

This was the reason Nico was acting so strange. The last thing he wanted to do was to run across the eagles, and be terrified, humiliated, and possibly beaten up, all at the same time, in front of everybody.

Deciding to tell Pedro the rest of the situation, Nico sighed and continued: "But… that's not all. That night, when they beat me up…" Nico had to take a deep breath to keep from having a nervous break down, "Thiago said that he would kill me if I didn't fear him."

Pedro was unsure of what to say next. Somehow, he believed an "it's gonna be okay" wouldn't quite be enough. A death threat from Thiago wasn't something to be dismissed without a second thought. Thiago would definitely deliver his threat if he felt he had to, or if he just wanted to. He had killed birds in public before, without caring who saw him. Everyone knew Thiago was a murderer. So, it was understandable that Nico was a bit tense with his situation.

Pedro forced a smile, and nudged Nico gently with his wing. "Don't worry 'bout it, man. We'll talk to Rafi, and he'll clear this whole thing up."

"I hope so… I think part of the reason they _didn't_ kill me right there is because of Rafi. At least I hope so… at least then, we'd have some sort of hold over those eagles."

"Oh, I don't think so."

Startled, Nico and Pedro jerked their heads over to the direction of the voice, and what was flying towards them made both of their—Nico's especially—stomachs drop.

The white-bodied, black winged eagle landed on the ledge besides them. He stared down at the two smaller birds menacingly, dominantly. His long, black talons clicked against the ledge as he slowly made his way across to Nico and Pedro.

"This is so weird," Maximiliano said in a "kind" voice, copying that of Thiago's "kind" voice, which Thiago used when he was trying to strike fear into the heart of someone. "I was just flying along, minding my own business, when I come across you two, standing on this here ledge. When I flew closer, it appeared that you two were talking about Thiago. I would like to hear what you two were talking about, if that's okay with you."

Nico instinctively shrank back. Seeing this, Pedro stepped forward, and countered, "Yo, Maxi, it's sweet that you're still trying to get your boss to love _you_ the way _you_ love _him_. But next time, tell your boss to do his own dirty work instead of sending his _boyfriend_!" Pedro shot out a smirk in the eagle's direction.

Maximiliano smiled, and held up a talon, as a human would hold up a finger. A smile appeared on the eagle's beak. "That was a good one, Pedro! Really! A _true_ comedian." The eagle's smile widened. "However, I'm sure than _Nico_ could easily top that. C'mon, Nico, show us what you got!"

Before three weeks ago, Nico would have gladly accepted that invitation. However, now that the eagles had shown him very graphically that Rafael had very little—if any—hold over them, Nico was too frightened to say anything. His voice caught in his throat, and all he could do was stand there, with his frightened little eyes, shaking, staring up at the eagle, whose cold eyes hovered at least three feet above him.

Maximiliano feigned shock. "What? No snappy comeback? No cheeky joke? _Nico, Nico, Nico!_ What's happened to you?"

Nico shivered. Three weeks ago, Thiago had taunted Nico in a similar manner, as he was beating the little canary up. And now, the eagle that had, three weeks ago, called Nico small, weak, and defenseless, was now playing that same card.

"Well, your not as happy as I remember… well, before you started crying, like a little chick in his nest cries for his mama." Maximiliano's smile grew even wider, if possible, as he reopened this old wound, too.

Nico also remembered it, like it was yesterday. He was curled up in a little ball, lying at the feet of the three eagles, lying in a puddle of his own tears and blood, the eagles mercilessly assaulting him, taking great care to cut him as slowly as possible, and to kick him as hard as possible. He couldn't even keep his head turned in the same general direction of Pedro, out of pure humiliation.

Of course, jerks like Maximiliano seemed to live off of the humiliation that they caused, and thrive off of it. "Now, Nico. Don't be embarrassed. There is nothing to be ashamed of by weeping like a little baby. Or lying in your own vomit."

Nico hung his head low. He couldn't even look at Pedro. What he must think of him now… weak, defenseless…

Pedro didn't think any of those. He was too busy seeing red. He wanted to tear that eagle's throat out! _No one_ did that to _his friend_ and got away with it! Still, even through his anger, he could still see that it would be a losing battle. He would get both of them killed.

"C'mon, Nico," he said to his humiliated friend. "Let's get away from this goon." He grabbed Nico's wing, and started to pull him in the opposite direction of Maximiliano, when suddenly, the eagle appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be leaving so soon." The eagle smiled eerily as he said this.

To Nico, the eagle's talons seemed to be growing, seemed to be sharpening, as he realized that, pretty soon, they would probably have a first hand taste of the pain they could inflict. Nico wasn't too thrilled about reliving that experience.

Pedro, against his better judgment, and thanks to his ego, smiled defiantly. "What makes you think that, bird?"

Maximiliano simply answered back, "These do," and, with no further warning or explanation, lunged at the two smaller birds, swinging his deadly talons in their direction.

Whether it was their quick reactions, or a miracle, they didn't know, but as the large eagle lunged at Nico and Pedro, they, almost instinctively, fell backwards, the tips of their beaks just barely avoiding being lopped off by the razor sharp talons. Luckily, Maximiliano overshot them by several yards, due to his fearsome momentum.

This gave Pedro plenty of time to plan his ingenious escape: "Yo, Nico, time to fly!" The next second, both birds were jumping off of the side of the building, and flying in the complete opposite direction that Maximiliano had flown in; they were flying towards the beach.

Throwing a glance over his shoulder, Nico could see that the eagle had quickly recovered, and was gaining on them. _Fast_. He looked over and saw Pedro realizing the same. "Pedro, we'd better pick it up!"

Nico and Pedro flapped their wings harder, desperately trying to gain speed. They succeeded, but still, Maximiliano was still gaining, now only feet behind them.

"Dive, man!" Nico screamed as Maximiliano, talons in the ready, flew up behind them. Both canary and cardinal narrowly avoided becoming headless as the talons swung, harmlessly, over their heads, with just centimeters to spare, as they dived towards the sandy beach.

But, still, Maximiliano, even though he had fallen behind, was, again, gaining on them, quickly closing the gap of beach that separated him from the two smaller birds flying ahead of him.

"Jeez!" Pedro breathed, feeling the exhaustion of trying to out fly one of the fastest eagles in all of Rio. "This guy won't quit!"

Nico, who was, too, becoming exhausted, replied, "Come on, this—!" The next moment, Nico was eating sand, and felt an almost unbearable tightness in his chest. Looking up, he saw the face of Maximiliano hovering many feet above him, his talons grasping the little canary tightly, pressing him to the sand of the beach. Nico started trembling. He couldn't breathe.

The large crowd of birds, which had inevitably gathered around Nico and the fearsome eagle, just stood there, a safe distance away, wondering what would happen to the popular canary that they all knew and liked. Of course, none of them would intervene. They weren't insane.

"C'mon, Nico, give me a joke, a comeback, a jab, _anything_!" He surveyed the trembling bird. Then, a mean, cold look appeared on the eagle's face, just like when he and the other two eagles had trapped Nico in the alleyway. "Ha, just what I thought. You're nothing but a little, weak—"

"Hey, man, nobody messes with a friend of Pedro!" Pedro furiously shouted as he sped towards the eagle after he had finally noticed that Nico wasn't flying besides him anymore.

A defiant grin grew on the eagle's face. "What'chya gonna do about it, small fry? Cry just like your frie—OW!"

Maximiliano let out a yelp of pain as Nico—who had managed to summon all of his courage—bit into a chunk of skin and feathers on the eagle's leg and tore them out as hard as he possibly could. Nico was left with a mess of skin, feathers, and blood in his beak, which he promptly spit out once he realized that the grasp of the eagle's talons had lessened considerably.

Managing to squeeze out of Maximiliano's talons, Nico motioned for Pedro to follow. "Let's beat it, man!" Flinging himself into the air, he flew, closely followed by Pedro, in the direction of the busy street next to the beach. From behind him, Nico could hear the eagle's angry shouts: "You little _bastardo_! You're dead!"

Looking over their shoulders, they saw Maximiliano who was, once again, speeding towards them. This guy _really wouldn't_ quit!

Flapping their aching wings even harder, the canary and the cardinal zoomed over the street, low enough to be well in danger of being hit by one of the many cars that sped down it. However, now, they had bigger things to worry about. Maximiliano was right behind them.

"Haha, now I—!"

A loud thump, a shattering noise, and a sickening crunch followed this cut off statement, and a look behind them confirmed to the small birds that Maximiliano was no longer following them.

Nico and Pedro, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, landed on the other side of the street, gasping for breath. That chase had taken everything out of them.

"Yo, man," Nico managed to breath out in between his gasps for breath. "Look." He pointed across the street. Pedro followed his wing's path, and what he saw shocked him, as it was currently shocking the large crowd of birds that had gathered in front of the still Jeep.

The Jeep had a spider web crack on its windshield, which was laced with red—_blood_. The blood was also smeared on the hood of the Jeep, and formed a red path across the hood, and down the front of the jeep. However, it wasn't this sight that left Nico, Pedro, and the countless other birds speechless. No, it was what lay in front of the Jeep that did.

The broken, bloody heap of feathers that was once Maximiliano, which lay at the wheels of the Jeep, was what did. A pool of blood spread out underneath the motionless form, spreading across the tar road.

"Move it, out of the way, make room!" The familiar voice shouted out as Rafael pushed his way through the crowd, appearing at the front, approaching the body of Maximiliano. He walked around the obviously disturbed humans that stood around the eagle, who had been the passengers of the truck.

Nico nudged Pedro with his wing. "C'mon, man." Adjusting his bottle cap, which had fallen over his eyes, Nico, followed by Pedro, flew over the street—a safe distance above the cars, of course—and landed next to Rafael. Needless to say, Rafael was somewhat shocked to see the two birds here under these circumstances.

"_Nico_? _Pedro_?" Rafael's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he spotted the two birds. "What in _o nome do Deus_ happened?"

"_Yo, man_," Pedro began, his speech increasing its speed twenty times, "_this eagle here was chasing us, right? And we were flying around wicked fast like, and the eagle came up behind us, and was like—_"

"Pedro, Pedro!" Rafael held up his wings in a slow-it-down gesture. "Calm down! What happened _here_?"

Nico decided to take over the explaining. "I have no idea. We were flying over the street, when, apparently, he was tackled by a car."

Requiring no other explanation, Rafael walked over to the still Maximiliano, and, with his wing, tried feeling for a pulse in the eagles wing and neck (much to the astonishment of the humans standing over the birds). He stood there for a little bit, attempting to find some sort of life in the mangled body.

Then, to the shock of every bird, he turned around, looked at the crowd—especially at Nico and Pedro—and, solemnly, simply, stated, "He's dead."

A clearly audible chorus of gasps and murmurs spread throughout the crowd. Maximiliano, one of the three most feared and dangerous eagles in all of Rio de Janeiro, who had, on some occasion, terrorized them all and filled them with fear, had just been killed by Nico and Pedro.

That was the general consensus. Of course, it wasn't really like that. The eagle had, more or less, done this to himself. Nico and Pedro hadn't directly killed him like the murmurs said they had. However, Maximiliano had been chasing them when he had died, and so, therefore, in the crowd's eyes, Nico and Pedro were to blame. Normally, they would be celebrating the two "heroic" birds, but they were afraid what would happen to them if they did. After all, there were still the two other eagles of this group.

Nico and Pedro were at loss for words. They honestly had no idea what to do now, what to say next, how to feel. They had rid Rio of a very dangerous eagle, but now, there would be _two more_ dangerous eagles on their tail, almost definitely looking for revenge.

Pedro was the first to speak. "What now, Rafi?"

Rafael answered almost immediately. "Leave. _Now_. The last thing you want is for those other two goons to catch you _here_—"

"Now, what do we have here?"

Rafael cursed under his breath. That voice had belonged to Thiago, who was, undisputedly, the most feared eagle in all of Rio. And, he was attracted to large crowds—probably to spread the fear that always followed him. That was unfortunate for Nico and Pedro.

"What's going on here?" Thiago asked in his almost pleasant voice, his massive presence landing on the road, followed by the other eagle, Carlos. He faced the crowd. "What's so interesting?"

The crowd shrank back, away from Thiago. They didn't want to be too near to him when he realized what had happened.

"What's the matter?" Thiago laughed. "Cat's got—"

Carlos interrupted Thiago's speech by grabbing his shoulder with his wing. "Thiago!"

Thiago turned to the completely black, crow-like eagle. He hated to be interrupted. "_What is so important—_?" He saw the body.

All of the composure in him that everyone feared disintegrated, and was replaced by something even more fearful: fury. His gray head stiffened, his black wings trembled, his black chest heaved, his eyes narrowed, his talons grinded against the road so hard, that they might have created sparks.

And then, the mighty eagle yelled so furiously and so loudly, that every bird in the area—even Rafael—and even the humans looking down upon him (who only heard angry caws)—took at least three steps back: "_WHO DID THIS? __**WHO? **__**I WANT A NAME!**_"

An immediate answer, which froze Nico and Pedro to the very spots on which they stood, emerged from a little bluebird in the front of the crowd, the pipsqueak pointing over at them, his little voice shaking: "They did! Nico and Pedro killed the big eagle!"

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><p><strong>Yep, so that's chapter one ending with (somewhat of) a cliffhanger. If you liked it, or even if you think I can do better, leave a review telling me what you think. Reviews really encourage an author to write! If not, still, thanks for reading my first chapter! I hope you liked it, and I hope to update soon!<strong>


	2. Threats and Decisions

**Hey, everyone. I'm sorry for the long wait. It's just that these last two weeks have been insane. Last week, tons of homework. This week, finals. We never get a break. Also, I made a change in the story. Normally, this chapter was supposed to be split up into two chapters. I changed this for two reasons: 1) No one would want to read two chapters of what could be easily put into one, and 2) Both chapters would be insanely small (Chapter 2 would have been 4,000 words, Chapter 3 would have been 2,000 words). I also did this, in part, to move the story along quicker, to the good parts. The next two chapters is what I think is the climax of this story. So, stay tuned for those chapters, and enjoy this chapter.**

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><p><strong>Murderous Intentions<strong>

**Part Two**

"They did! Nico and Pedro killed the big eagle!"

Thiago's head snapped towards Nico and Pedro, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the two smaller birds, a murderous fire within them. This terrified everyone, even Carlos. Of course, he had killed people before. In fact, as horrible as it may sound, this happened quite often. However, as the few living witnesses claimed, he always did it with a smile.

But now, as he glared at the canary and the cardinal with obvious murderous intentions, everyone knew that if he killed the two birds—_when_ he killed the two birds—it wouldn't be because they crossed him, or because they displeased him in some way, or because he wanted to make a point. It would be for vengeance. And, when Thiago got vengeful—which, thankfully, he rarely did—he got really scary. He got ruthless. And he got creative.

Well, _more _so.

This is why so many birds feared him—not for what he was, but, mostly, for what he could become. And Nico and Pedro were about to get a firsthand experience of what that could be like for the unfortunate souls who were on the receiving end of that rare vengefulness.

And that's why Rafael had to stop him.

So, Rafael stood between Thiago, and Nico and Pedro—who had frozen under the eagle's hard glare—and tried as best as he could to clear matters up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get too hasty here!" Rafael pleaded, waving his wings for emphasis. "This was an accident! Nothing more. They didn't—"

"_Didn't what_?" Thiago snapped back, not for one instant breaking his death stare with the two smaller birds behind the toucan. "_What didn't they do? They didn't kill Max? So there isn't a dead body in front of me? Is that what you're telling me?_"

"Thiago, just calm down—"

"_Calm down?_" Suddenly, Thiago had the same, almost pleasant-like attitude he had before. No one was sure if this was good or bad. However, unlike before, this calm state looked forced, as if Thiago was holding something back. The eagle smiled. "Fine… I'm calm."

This scared Nico more than any threat the eagle could have ever made. He could tell that Thiago was just waiting to explode with anger, rage, and violence: a ticking time bomb. Nico wanted to turn and fly away as fast as he possibly could. But that soul-stealing glare kept him glued to the spot on which he stood. He couldn't move. He felt like prey being stalked: the littlest movement would result in death.

Thiago continued. "I'm calm. Just hand over to me those two little pipsqueaks, and I'll leave in peace."

Rafael found himself being backed into a corner. By brute force, there was absolutely no way that he could prevent Thiago and Carlos from harming Nico and Pedro. His reputation wasn't faring any better; they had already beaten up Nico once, and were now fully ready to kill him as painfully as possible. He figured his best chance was to play it assertive.

Rafael put on his confident face, the face that said 'I know everybody and can do anything,' and, looking the lead eagle dead in the eye, said, "Thiago! I'm warning you—"

Just as calm and cool as before, Thiago cut off the toucan. "No, Rafael, I'm warning you. Step aside." His tone was calm, but his eyes screamed bloody murder.

Rafael knew the best he could do, at this point, would be to at least give Nico and Pedro a chance to try and escape. How? He had no idea. However, before he could think any farther on the subject, he found himself turning to Nico and Pedro, whispering, "You guys better run. I'll stall for as long as I can."

Forcing themselves to move, Nico and Pedro, trembling, turned their back on the piercing stare that cut through them. Turning to Nico, Pedro tried to give Nico a reassuring smile, but found he could not. Chances are, they were not going to make it out of this alive.

As Nico and Pedro took off, zooming through the air as fast as their wings would take them, Rafael turned to Thiago. Now, all he had to do was buy them some time, enough for them to safely make their getaway, to hide from the murderous eagles.

"Thiago, go home. Forget this. We don't have to have a problem. They _did not_ kill Maximiliano. It wasn't their faults." Rafael—though he hoped it would—knew deep down that this argument would ultimately fail. The only purpose it served was to delay the eagles in their chase of the smaller birds.

Thiago didn't answer Rafael's statements. All he said was, "For the last time, step aside. This doesn't concern you in the least." His voice was becoming agitated, though he struggled to keep it calm. "Your '_charm_' has worn off. I'm done listening to you. Right now, you're the only thing that stands between me, and them. That's _very_ bad for you. Get out of my way!"

"No, Thiago. I won't let you—" Even though the only thing Rafael was attempting to accomplish was to give Nico and Pedro just a little more time, he never got to finish his statement. The black wing that made contact with his beak cut him off. Thiago made sure to hit him as hard as he possibly could, so that the toucan was unconscious by the time he slammed into the pavement below.

Though the crowd behind him gasped at the fact that Thiago had just _hit_ _Rafael_, the eagle looked down proudly at his handiwork, and muttered, "That'll teach you." Turning to the silent Carlos, he snapped, "Let's go. Take them alive. They don't deserve a quick death."

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><p>Nico and Pedro were silent as they sped through the sky, in the general direction of the rainforest. They wanted to save every ounce of energy they had in them. They wanted to get home as soon as they possibly could.<p>

Everything had happened so fast. One second, Maximiliano was chasing them. The next, he was dead on the road. Now, they were flying for their lives from two eagles that most likely wanted to see their insides on the outside. All because Pedro had wanted to go to the beach!

Nico let out a yelp of surprise. Pedro turned to look at the canary, and saw his head turned back over his shoulder. Doing the same, he saw what Nico had: the two eagles quickly closing the large gap between them. And they were larger, faster, and angrier than the late Maximiliano. He too let out a yelp.

"Quick! Follow me!" With that, Nico was off, his adrenaline-fueled flight increasing in speed, Pedro's doing the same, following the canary. Pedro had no idea where the canary could be heading, but he seemed confident, and right now, that was good enough for him.

Nico flew as fast and as hard as he possibly could, hoping that Pedro was following him closely behind; the last thing he wanted to do right now was to look back to see if Pedro was there and ram into a light post or something. Right now, he was focusing on his current target: the narrow little space between two buildings less than ten feet away and closing.

Pedro barely noticed the small gap between the buildings until he had flown, after Nico, into it, and suddenly, brick and wood surrounded him. There was barely space for his small wingspan. Then, he started to get Nico's logic. Stealing a glance behind him, he was extremely relieved to see the two eagles, hovering at the opening of the narrow alleyway, tossing very inappropriate language their way. The eagles were too large to fit in between the buildings!

Pedro, thinking they were safe for the moment, stopped to take a breather, only to be immediately pulled forward by Nico.

"Come on! Don't stop! We gotta get out of here!" The canary flew quickly through the gap, followed closely by Pedro, who, looking back, saw that, now, only Carlos remained at the opening of the narrow alleyway, Thiago nowhere to be seen.

That changed quickly. They exited the space between the buildings with mere seconds to spare, before Thiago dropped in from above, in front of the exit which the two smaller birds had just taken, in an attempt to fly over the gap, cut them off and trap them in the alleyway.

Even though that plan had failed, Thiago still made a beeline towards Nico and Pedro, talons at the ready, with Carlos just now flying over the alleyway in an attempt to catch up, lagging behind Thiago, yet nonetheless gaining on the two birds, as was Thiago. Both of their eyes burned with anticipation as they quickly closed the small gap.

So, obviously, the day wasn't starting out so hot for Nico and Pedro.

* * *

><p>Rafael slowly opened his eyes. The bright, shining light of the sun just made the massive headache he already had that much worse. Groaning, he shut his eyes against the sun's rays. When he felt that he could open his eyes without the light hurting his eyes, he did so, and slowly lifted his aching head off of the ground.<p>

Looking around, he realized three things: there was a large crowd of birds gathered around him, he was on the beach, and his beak was throbbing. For a moment, he couldn't recall what had happened. Then, he remembered: Thiago's threats, Nico and Pedro flying away, Thiago punching him in the face—

_NICO AND PEDRO!_

Those eagles were many times bigger and faster than those two, and wanted to kill them. That wasn't a good mix. Rafael had to make sure that Nico and Pedro was okay!

Quickly, yet sloppily, Rafael stood up, kicking sand all over the place. The world around him was spinning. It took every ounce of his skill to stay on his feet. A couple birds rushed towards him and grabbed his wings, to help support him.

One of them said, "Rafael! Are you okay? I can't believe Thiago did that! You should sit down!"

Rafael drunkenly pushed the birds off of him. "I'm fine! I'm… fine. Just… I need to find Nico and… Pedro." With that, he spread out his wings, and took to the air. Suddenly, the world started to spin again, and, before he knew it, his head was buried in sand.

Pushing himself out of the sandy ground, he shakily brought himself back onto his feet. Swaying from side to side, he announced, "I'm all right!"

This drew some chuckles from the crowd, but Rafael didn't notice. Once he felt that he could safely fly without making a crash landing again, he lifted himself into the air, and, still somewhat shakily, flew in the general direction of Nico and Pedro's hollow in the rainforest.

* * *

><p>Nico and Pedro threw themselves into their hollow, and collapsed onto its floor in an exhausted heap. Both of them were gasping for breath, their feathers plastered to their bodies, soaked with sweat. They felt like they were going to throw up.<p>

For fifteen minutes, those lunatic eagles had chased them. Normally, for them, fifteen minutes of flying would be no problem. Heck, some of the races they had sometimes lasted upwards of thirty or forty minutes. This time, however, they had been flying for their lives. They had flown faster than they ever had in their lives. And, once the adrenaline had worn off, it left them utterly exhausted.

They had barely evaded the eagles. Mostly, this consisted of flying into spaces that the eagles were too large to fit into—namely, spaces between buildings. This had required the eagles to take a longer route, yet had only increased the distance by which they lagged behind by just a little. However, it could have been these little delays for the eagles that had saved Nico and Pedro's lives.

Eventually, by some miracle, they had managed to make it to the rainforest, darting through the dense group of trees. This also slowed down the eagles somewhat, since they had to be extra careful not to slam into a tree at full force.

They had been flying deep into the rainforest when Pedro suddenly grabbed Nico's wing, and yanked him behind a massive tree without explanation. The eagles, flying too fast and blinded by anger, were, for a short time, unaware that they were not chasing anything, and that their targets had vanished.

It had only taken them seconds to realize that Nico and Pedro were no longer in front of them. Their anger swelling up inside of them, Thiago and Carlos had sped back to the last place they had seen Nico and Pedro. However, those few wasted seconds had indeed been crucial.

The eagles returned to the huge tree, around which the two smaller birds had vanished, and scanned the trees and the leaves, looking for a flash of red, or a hint of yellow, looking for a slip up that would reveal the two birds. There was none.

For about fifteen minutes, they flew around the tree, Thiago barking orders at Carlos, frantically looking for the two birds. But they couldn't find a trace of them. They looked through the thick canopy of the rainforest's leaves; all they could do was look, for the eagles were far too big and the branches far too strong for them to squeeze through, or to force their way though, the branches.

Nico and Pedro was nowhere to be found.

However, Thiago knew they were close. He couldn't see them, but he could _feel_ it. There was no technique to it, it was just a sixth sense he possessed; it hadn't failed him yet. So, throwing back his head, to project his voice, he boomed, "_Alright, you win __**this**__ time! But don't think that this is over! You can bet you'll see us again in the very near future. We'll get you!_" With that, the eagles—Thiago leading Carlos—left, flying furiously through the trees, and out of sight.

However, unbeknownst to the huge eagles, Nico and Pedro had been close enough to hear them even if Thiago hadn't shouted. In fact, they had been so close that, while looking at the canopy of leaves for the two small birds, if it hadn't been for the impenetrable branches, the eagles could have reached out their wings and touched them.

Nico and Pedro hid among the leaves and branches, since their small stature permitted them to hide among the twisted boughs. In those few seconds when the eagles had overshot them at the big tree, Pedro had, more or less, dragged Nico into the dense leaves, and, miraculously, had found a relatively thick patch of leaves and branches to take cover in—thick enough so that even the eagles' sharp eyes couldn't penetrate it. If it hadn't been for this, the two birds would have definitely been discovered.

Nico and Pedro had practically help their breath as they silently hid in the branches' grasp, nervously watching Thiago and Carlos scouting the area for them, their stomachs dropping violently every time the eagles turned their way. Even after the eagles had left, they had waited a good five minutes before finally daring to venture out of the branches, just to be sure, before finally flying as fast as their wings would permit them to their hollow on the far side of the forest.

So now, they lay on the floor of their big hollow, chests heaving, soaking wet with perspiration, savoring every lungful of air that they were able to capture without having to move. Their wings trembled with the strain of the chase, and for ten full minutes, they lay there, too exhausted to even move or talk. Eventually, their breathing died down, and they had recaptured the breath that had previously left them.

Groaning due to the effort required, Pedro slowly sat up, and eventually managed to stand up. Stretching to try and get rid of the aching in his limbs, he couldn't help but chuckle a little, and add, "That was some workout."

Nico, who currently lay on his back, replied tiredly, "I don't think I'll be able to move for a week." His voice was muffled by his bottle cap, which now lay over his beak. It had fallen when he had collapsed. Nico didn't have the energy necessary to reach up and remove the cap, so he left it lying there.

After a moment of awkward silence, the type where no one really knows what to say or do next, Pedro spoke up: "Now what, man? What're we goin' to do? We can't stay in here forever."

Summoning all of his willpower, Nico managed to reach up with his wing and shove the bottle cap, which was beginning to smother him, off of his face. He was trying desperately to come up with an answer to his friend's question when a voice suddenly came from the entrance of the hollow: "You're alive!"

Nico, who still lay on the floor, tilted his head back, to be greeted with an upside-down image of Rafael, with a huge smile plastered on his beak. Nico managed to shoot back a weary smile. "Hey, Rafi. 'Bout time you decided to show up." Fighting the exhaustion, which nearly overwhelmed him, he shakily stood up, nearly tipping over, managing to catch himself. He placed the bottle cap on his head.

Pedro also flashed a smile, though his was a little more crooked, and he stood besides Nico. "Of course we're alive. No dirty eagle's gonna get the jump on us."

Rafael seemed to let out a huge, relieved breath, and suddenly, his tone turned scolding. "You two idiots could have gotten killed!" However, before the two smaller birds could even think of a reply, Rafael pulled the two smaller birds into a tight group hug, only to almost instantaneously release them, holding his wings out in a surprised manner, looking down his front at his now soaking wet feathers. "What happened? Did you guys have a fight with a raincloud?"

Nico and Pedro looked slightly embarrassed. "Uhh, Rafi," Nico said. "That isn't water."

For a moment, a puzzled look appeared on the toucan's face, then a look of realization, followed by a look of disgust. Wringing his wings out, he simply stated, "That's gross."

Pedro grew defensive, yet in a good-natured way. "Hey, you didn't have to fly nonstop from a couple of crazy eagles, who—"

Rafael sighed and quickly cut him off. "Listen," he began, suddenly serious, "I came here to talk about something important. Something's got to be done about this whole situation. It's getting out of control."

"Just tell those guys to stop," Nico suggested. "You _are_, after all, Rafael, who has connections through the roof."

Rafael nodded. "That might have been an option, before Thiago gave me a beak full of his wing. He obviously isn't tiptoeing around me anymore."

Nico suddenly noticed Rafael's beak. It was beginning to bear bruises and there was a little of what appeared to be dried blood caked on it. Nico was shocked. _No one_ hit Rafael. There was no because. It was just unheard of.

Pedro went on the offensive. "That creep _hit_ you?" His eyes narrowed. "Yo, it's _on_, _now_! I'll show that son of a b—"

"Pedro, Pedro! Calm down!" Nico urged. Usually, someone would think that this was all talk coming from Pedro, that the little cardinal would never really attempt to take on the two murderous eagles himself. Obviously, this bird wouldn't have known Pedro that well. Nico did, and he could still remember the incident, which had effectively rammed home the fact that Pedro _would_ attack someone, regardless of their stature, if they hurt one of his friends.

At that point, Nico had known Pedro for a couple years. Over that period of time, they had become inseparable. Even though Nico never "officially" became Pedro's roommate, they both knew that Nico was in. At that time, Pedro still somewhat looked after Nico, since Nico, at that point, hadn't quite yet achieved his current level of popularity, and was still picked on because of his size, which was even smaller than Pedro's. And Pedro was ready to make anyone who hurt his canary friend pay, or go down trying.

So, one day, Nico had been walking on the beach. However, it had turned into more than just a walk. While walking, Nico had caught the attention of three abnormally large pelicans—like the eagle gang, but not as big or as fearful or as skilled in fighting or as ruthless. So, basically, they were just a bunch of jerks. Nonetheless, in their sheer size, Nico was no match for them. They taunted him because of his small stature, calling him names like "small fry" or "pipsqueak" just for the sole purpose of being jerks. When Nico had tried to fly away, they turned violent.

Nico had returned to his and Pedro's hollow an hour later than expected, and Pedro was horrified, and furious, with Nico's condition: Nico had several bruises visible under his feathers. He had a bloody beak, the blood dripping onto the floor. Blood stained his yellow feathers. He was limping. Really, it was a miracle that he was able to fly. Pedro had to force Nico to tell him who did this to him; Nico kept answering the embarrassed, "No one, I'm fine." After he had extracted their names, Pedro had made it priority number one to give those pelicans a piece of his mind. He knew he was out numbered _and_ outsized, but that didn't stop him. They had hurt Nico.

About ninety minutes later, Pedro came flying—barely—back into the hollow. It looked as if he had tried to tackle a brick wall. He had a black eye. His feathers were matted with dried blood. Dried blood caked on his beak. Obviously, he had lost the battle—if that's really what you called it. And—as he later revealed to Nico—he had known from the beginning that that had been a fight he had been bound to lose. He hadn't cared. He hadn't been about to let anyone hurt his best friend and let them get away completely clean. (Really, even Pedro's losing the fight wasn't completely useless—the pelicans later received much Hell from Rafael.)

This was one of Pedro's best qualities—and also one of his worst. A few weeks before now, it had taken everything Nico had to keep Pedro from walking to his death when he wanted to stand up against the three eagles who had beaten Nico senseless. Now, Nico was sure that Pedro would do just that for Rafael if he were allowed to continue.

Rafael also knew this, and so, he argued, "Yeah, Nico's right. Calm down. To go up against those two would be suicide."

Pedro angrily crossed his wings over his chest. "Then what do _you_ think we should do?"

Rafael thought for a minute. "Give me a day."

Pedro wasn't satisfied at all. "Oh _sure_, take ya time. It's not like two eagles want our heads on stakes. Oh wait, _yes they do!_ Just get your _connections_ and kick them out!"

Rafael sighed deeply. "Listen, if we rush into this, we could make things even _worse_ off for ourselves. We need to handle this very carefully. We can't afford to screw around with these guys. All I _can_ guarantee you is that if you rush at them, you'll get yourself killed. If we handle this the wrong way, we—and others—could get killed. After all, _they_ have connections, too."

Besides Pedro, Nico nodded thoughtfully. "You know he's right, man. Let's just lay low for a little while. Okay?"

Pedro thought about it for a long moment. Boy, how he wanted to make those eagles pay for everything that they've done. However, Nico and Rafi _were_ right. They had to handle this carefully, like an out of control fire. One slip up, and they could all get burned.

"Fine," Pedro agreed reluctantly. "I'll step off. For now." Suddenly, he turned back into the Pedro they all knew and loved, smiling cockily. "Only for you Rafi _my love…_"

Nico snickered at Pedro's joke. Rafael just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." He couldn't suppress the smile that crept onto his beak. "You've better love me, after all those times I've saved your tail." He turned to look out of the hollow's entrance, at the sun, which had reached its peak in the sky: noon. "I've gotta go, _amigos_. Remember: you two _stay here_—or at least don't travel _too_ far. And…" he waved a wing in front of his beak. "… Take a bath..."

With that, Rafael jumped out of the hollow's entrance, and flew off, into the hot Rio afternoon.

* * *

><p>While flying back to his own hollow, Rafael was flying more or less on autopilot, not paying attention to the rainforest around him, but was absorbed in his thoughts. Despite the jokes shared between them, he was still worried about Nico and Pedro. Those two maniac eagles were still after them, and Rafael knew, probably better than anyone else, that Thiago and Carlos' reputation was surrounded with violence and infamy. They had killed birds for much less serious offenses than killing one of their gang members—though Nico and Pedro had simply been blindly running from the enraged, unprovoked eagle—and Rafael was sure that if the two eagles had caught Nico and Pedro earlier, they would have killed them.<p>

Still, this wasn't the biggest question on Rafael's mind. The biggest question was what was he going to do about this situation? Originally, his main threat was that if the eagles messed with him, he would use his sweeping influence to boot them out of Rio. The eagles' threat was that they would call _their_ connections—all of which were eagles just as big as them—to resist. This could very well establish a violent stalemate between the birds and eagles—the birds' massive numbers versus the massive eagles. And though it seemed weird that three jerk eagles could start a mini war in Rio, Rafael knew that this was a very real threat.

It had been the only threat Rafael had.

And now, the eagles had supposedly "called his bluff." They thought they knew that Rafael would never go to such extremes for only two birds. Two lives weren't equivalent to those of possibly hundreds of birds. The scary thing was that Rafael wasn't sure if the eagles were right or not.

Firstly, if he did decide to try and kick the eagles out, would anyone follow him? Influence only goes so far. Rafael was sure that if he had a good reason, most birds would follow him. But if he gave sacrificing many lives just to try and save two birds' lives as a reason, he highly doubted that anyone would see that as a justifiable excuse.

Second, _would_ he even try? Sure, he loved Nico and Pedro. They were like sons to him—well, besides the eighteen he already had. He would do anything to protect them. _He_ would go up against the eagles himself if it meant that they would live. However, would he risk the lives of the many birds of Rio, and—especially—his little toucan kids and his wife, Eva, to save them? Absolutely not, as horrible as it might sound. But then, that meant that Nico and Pedro would have to fend for themselves against the most vicious and ruthless eagles of Rio; without his threats, Rafael was powerless to stop them.

The whole threat system that had kept the eagles in check was now collapsing. No matter what he did, someone would get hurt. All he could do was choose the lesser of two evils.

It was these thoughts that plagued his mind for the rest of the fly home, and for the rest of the day, their burden heavy on his shoulders, and the guilt of the decision he would inevitably have to make eating away at him.

* * *

><p>The time was 3:00 AM. The streets were dark, as were the buildings that lined them. Not even streetlights penetrated the darkness, for there were none here. No bird was visible walking or flying home. Everyone was sleeping in their comfy nests. However, if someone had happened to walk by a certain small, dark alleyway, they might have heard small, muffled, squeaky yelping sounds coming from within.<p>

Inside the alleyway, a small shape curled into a ball on the cold, hard ground: a small little bluebird. He had just been innocently flying home to his warm nest when, out of nowhere, two extremely large, dark shapes had jumped him, and dragged him into the small, abandoned alleyway. It was here that the same to shapes kicked and clawed and stomped on the little bird, the bird emitting small, muffled yelps of pain from his curled up fetal position, trying to somehow escape the punishment.

After what seemed like hours, the two dark forms finally let up, ceasing the brutal attacking… for the moment, at least. The little bird just lay there, silently writhing in pain, hoping that maybe if he was silent, his attackers might just lose interest and leave. However, the tallest assailant bent down, so that its head, steadily emerging from the darkness, yet still cast over by shadows, rested mere centimeters from the bluebird.

It was only now that the poor bird could see, to his terror, the face of his attacker: Thiago, with his terrifying eyes still glimmering evilly in the darkness; he looked like some sort of demon. The small bird could only assume that the other massive shape behind him was Carlos, since Maximiliano had recently been killed, as everyone already knew.

The massive eagle then spoke with a dark, serious, deadly voice: "You know who I am, and what I'm capable of. If you don't want me to come to your nest one night with the intent of killing you in your sleep, make sure this message gets to Nico and Pedro: meet us at the Christ the Redeemer Statue tomorrow night at midnight. Or else, you and many others will die."

With that short speech delivered, and without any other explanation, Thiago and the dark shape behind him that was Carlos suddenly drew back into the shadows, and disappeared from sight. The little bird was unceremoniously left there—battered, bruised, bloody, and beaten—to lie in silent pain, and to play Thiago's death-threatening message over and over in his mind, trembling in fear, soaking in his own tears.

* * *

><p>Nico sat uneasily next to Pedro in their hollow, looking out through the entrance, praying to see the toucan soon. It had been over twenty-four hours since Rafael had last been at their hollow. He should be here by now, telling them what their game plan was. What if something happened to him? What if the eagles got him? What if he had ditched the canary and the cardinal? These thoughts caused Nico to shift nervously on the floor, where he sat, and fidget with his bottle cap, which was resting, as usual, on his head.<p>

Pedro noticed Nico's paranoia, and asked him, "Hey, man, what's wrong?"

"Rafael. He should be here by now. What if something happened to him?" Nico didn't even turn to Pedro. He kept staring intently outside, at the blue sky.

Pedro couldn't help but chuckle a little at the surreal situation. Nico was never paranoid. Even yesterday, he hadn't been paranoid… well, at least _after_ they got to the safety of their hollow. But apparently, just sitting around was making his paranoia skyrocket again. "Chill, bird." Pedro tried to calm Nico down. "Those eagles didn't get Rafael. He's no idiot."

Nico turned to Pedro, worry evident in his eyes. "But what if—"

"No buts. Rafael is fine. When Rafael said one day, he didn't mean _exactly_ one day. Just calm down, Nico. You'll give yourself a heart attack."

Nico sighed deeply. He guessed he was acting a little over the top. Those eagles _were_ taking their tolls on Nico's nerves, for sure. Nico _did_ have somewhat just cause to be nervous. If Thiago and Carlos caught Nico and Pedro, they would kill the smaller birds, or do the same thing to Rafael if they thought it would bring Nico and Pedro to them. However, Pedro was right. He needed to be calm. Rafael wasn't stupid; he was actually very street smart, and knew what to do in a jam. Also, the eagles didn't know where Rafi lived, and Rafael would never let the eagles find his family.

"Yeah, you're right," Nico sighed. "I _am_ a little paranoid. It's those eagles." Another sigh. "I'm sure Rafael's fine…"

Pedro suddenly grinned. "Yes, he is. And _there_ is your proof!" He pointed with his wing at the hollow's entrance. Turning, Nico saw the image that he had been praying for over the last two hours: Rafael flying into the hollow and landing before them.

"Rafi!" Nico yelled with joy, flying up to the toucan. "It's about time you came! I thought you died!"

Rafael chuckled. "Yeah, it's great to see you too, Nico."

Pedro also flew up to the toucan, and landed in front of him, next to Nico. He decided to just plainly ask the question that had been haunting his and Nico's—especially Nico's—minds for hours: "So, what's happening? What're we gonna do?"

Rafael suddenly broke eye contact, looking at the floor, obviously nervous. Rafael never broke eye contact… well, unless something was royally wrong. It was something that Pedro had learned over the years. So, Pedro began to get nervous. "Rafael? What's wrong?"

Rafael, still looking down at his feet, sighed. Forcing himself to do so, he looked back up at Nico and Pedro, both of their faces covered in anxiety. Then, Rafael said something that he had never said in all of the years that he had known Nico and Pedro for: "I don't know what to do."

Silence followed. Nico and Pedro literally had no idea how to react to this. They could barely process what he had just said. Rafael _never_ ran out of ideas. Even if one of them failed, he would have another backup plan, and a backup plan for the backup plan, and so on. Now, however, it seemed as if he didn't even have a Plan A.

Nico was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, with an uncomfortable reply. "What do you mean you have no idea…?"

Again, Rafael sighed, before he started to explain. "_Amigos_, I'm trapped in a corner. Right now, there are two possible roads: one, I try to kick those eagles out of here. That could very well kill innocent birds, when Thiago's '_connections_' arrive, and wreak havoc. Two, we try to either reason with, or avoid them."

"_Avoid_ them? _Reason with_ them? I think you may have forgotten who we're dealing with here, Rafi!" Now it was Pedro's turn to talk. "If we wanted to avoid them, we'd be prisoners in here, or we'd have to move! And I'm not going to even get _started_ on trying to _reason_ with them!"

"Exactly," the large toucan answered, nodding. "Now you see our problem."

Nico sighed. "You mean _our_ problem."

Rafael looked at Nico quizzically.

"We can't ask you to fight our battles for us. You have a family. We can't put them in danger. We can't put you in danger. We started it. We can't ask you too finish it, or for anyone else to pay for it."

Rafael, slowly nodded, and then smiled. "Well, your right about one thing… I can't fight your battles for you. But I can fight them _with_ you. You're _also_ right that I would _never_ put my family in danger. But you've missed one important thing: you and Pedro are my family, too. Perhaps not in blood, but in bond."

Pedro faked obnoxiously loud crying. "That's so beautiful!" He made sure to "sniff" extra loudly.

Nico couldn't help but smile, the mood now a little lightened. "Well, Pedro, one thing's for sure: you certainly know how to ruin the mood." He turned to Rafael. "Thanks, man. You really _have_ been like to family to us… but you have your own family, with kids and a wife. They need you more than we do."

Rafael's smile widened. "You really _are_ the best friends a bird could have." His face again became somewhat serious, and, once again, he sighed. "I promise you, it will never get to that. We'll find a way out of this, and no one will get hurt." Rafael sighed one more time. "And… there is one more thing that you guys should probably know…"

Nico and Pedro became concerned again.

"What is it, Rafi?" Pedro asked.

"Last night—late at night—Thiago and Carlos went around Rio, injuring and beating up birds all over the place. But, that's not the most disturbing part. They gave every bird the same message: for you two to meet them at the Jesus statue tonight at midnight, or else they would start killing innocent birds."

The silence that followed was even worse than the last one. This silence was filled with despair and guilt.

Rafael sighed. "I'm sorry." In his next breath, he added, "Please, don't go. They'll kill you. We _will_ figure something out. I swear. But for now, don't leave here." He turned and looked outside. The sun, while still shining in the sky, was a good amount of time into its final descent of the day. He said sadly, "I hate to have to leave on that note, but I have to go now. I just thought that you two should know what's going on." He turned to fly away, but didn't leave before turning around one final time. "Trust me. Everything will work out fine." With that, he jumped from the hollow, high in its tree, and flew off into the late afternoon.

The agonizing silence continued for a few minutes after the toucan had left. Nico and Pedro just stood there, glued to the spots where they stood, turning what Rafael had left them with over in their minds: "…Start killing innocent birds." "They'll kill you." "…Meet them at the Jesus statue tonight at midnight…"

Once again, Nico was the first to speak. "What do we do?"

Pedro sighed deeply. "If we go, they'll kill us. If we don't, they'll kill innocent birds."

This wasn't an opinion. This wasn't speculation. This wasn't sugarcoated. This was a hard, cold fact.

* * *

><p><strong>That was the chapter, ending, once again, on a cliffhanger, which I seem to love to do a lot. I really hoped you liked this chapter: I spent two weeks on it, due to conflicting schedules. If you liked it, or even if you think I didn't do a good job on some aspect(s), please tell me your thoughts, comments, andor suggestions. These really make a writer become a better writer!**


	3. Fight or Flight?

**Hey, I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter. It's been taking me longer and longer to write these chapters, not because they are longer (which they are), but because I am just getting less and less time to write. However, for me, this week is February Vacation! So, hopefully, I can get some writing done in the next eight days. There are only two more chapters to go! **

**I know that I still have a good ways to go before this story is complete, but after this story, if all goes according to plan, I want to write another, shorter story. I already have several little ideas that I'm toying around with.**

**Oh, and one more little thing. This isn't **_**really**_** important, but I'm interested: after reading the chapter, leave a comment telling me what you think is going to happen next. **_**I**_** already know, but I'm curious to see what you would write next. I don't usually do these "respond to this question", but I'm curious, and would like to see how others would continue on from this chapter. **

**However, I have gotten off track: enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p><strong>Murderous Intentions<strong>

**Part Three**

The hollow was absolutely silent. Neither Nico nor Pedro spoke, or even moved, for that matter. Pedro had just stated the obvious, a fact that they both knew, but still, it made them realize the tough decision they had to make: don't show up, and live, or meet the eagles at the Jesus statue, and be killed; the old "live a coward" or "die a hero" scenario.

Nico's mind raced. He didn't want to die. He was a young canary. He was in his prime. All he wanted to do was to live his life and party, not to be burdened with a decision no bird should have to make. He had to choose between dying and saving innocent lives—though technically, Nico and Pedro were innocent—or staying in hiding, sentencing many others to death in the process. And he knew Thiago and Carlos weren't bluffing. They never bluffed.

Even though the fear of death formed a huge knot in his stomach, he knew he had to go. Did he want to? No. Did he want to face almost certain death? No. But he couldn't let completely innocent birds die because of a fight between him and Pedro, and the eagles.

So, he breathed in deeply, shakily, and finally spoke: "I'll go. You don't have to come. It was the fight between Thiago and I that started this. I have to finish it. I can't ask you to put yourself at risk because I got on the wrong side of him. If I go, maybe afterwards, he'll forget about you…"

Pedro stared at Nico in disbelief. What Nico had just said almost didn't process. Had he just suggested that he go _alone_ to deal with the eagles? Pedro was almost insulted that Nico would think that Pedro would even _consider_ agreeing to that. Beak still hanging open in disbelief, he began, "Did you just say what I think you just said? You think that I would even consider _considering_ that stupid idea? You didn't start this. _We_ started this."

Nico began to get desperate. Holding out his wings, he pleaded, "Pedro! Please! If it hadn't been for me, Thiago never would have beaten me up, and you would never be in this position!"

Pedro could see in Nico's eyes that he was being sincere. He wasn't trying to be the hero, or trying to be courageous, or trying to be noble. He honestly didn't want Pedro to get hurt for what Nico thought were _his own_ mistakes. "Nico, man, what are you saying? You're blaming yourself for something Thiago did to you? You think it's _your_ fault that some jerk beat _you_ up? _He_ started it. You were just trying to stand up for yourself. I don't think it's your fault at all. If anything, you did the _right_ thing!" Pedro stood up tall, stubbornly. He crossed his wings over his chest, to show that he was serious. "I'm not going to let you do this alone, just as I know you wouldn't let _me_ fight them alone. We've been best buds for eight years. We've never abandoned each other, and I'm not gonna start now! I can tell that nothing's gonna convince you not to go. But let me _tell_ you that when you go, I'm gonna be right there by your side!"

Another awkward silence. Nico just stared down at the floor, unsure of what to do next. He didn't want Pedro involved. He knew that if they both went, both of them would be, almost definitely, killed. Nico felt somewhat responsible for this. If only he hadn't pushed Thiago so far. However, like Pedro said, they had known each other for eight years, best friends through thick and thin. And so, like Pedro with him, Nico knew Pedro like the back of his wing, and he knew that Pedro wouldn't give in. That was another bad trait of Pedro's besides being insanely protective—he was also the most stubborn bird the canary had ever met in his life, especially when it came to situations involving Nico's welfare, such as this one was. Nico guessed that this was tied in with the cardinal's over protectiveness.

Sighing, Nico looked back up at Pedro, and couldn't help the sad smile that crept across his beak, despite his dark question: "You do realize that if you come, you'll probably die?"

Pedro returned the smile. His expression softened somewhat. He feigned his usual cool demeanor. "Hey, man. We're best buds to the end. If I go, I'll do it fighting, and right by your side."

Nico tried desperately to uphold the sad smile on his face. Nico almost couldn't believe what Pedro had just said. Pedro would willingly sentence himself to death, if it meant that Nico wouldn't have to the same alone. Nico, who was known for his cool, confident, and suave attitude, could feel his smile deteriorating, wetness building up in his eyes, threatening to form into tears and drip down his face. He could feel the instinct to cry coming upon him like a freight train. The canary turned his head to the side, away from Pedro, wiped his eyes with the back of his wing, and sniffed. He took a deep breath.

While Nico was turned away, Pedro also suppressed the same urge to cry. Up until now, he had been able to successfully do so, but the sight of Nico fighting back the urge to cry had sent him over the edge. He, too, sniffed loudly.

Nico looked back at Pedro, his eyes glistening, taking deep breaths to keep himself from releasing the pent up tears. Again, he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his beak—a smile torn between sadness and gratefulness. Nico managed a little chuckle. Trying to lighten the mood, he said, "Man, that was so cheesy…"

Involuntarily, Pedro returned the chuckle, along with the sad, grateful smile, yet his was somewhat mixed with a grin. "I think this is the part where we're supposed to cuddle."

Nico playfully hit Pedro in the chest with his wing. "Hey, not before dinner and a movie!"

Both of them laughed. Not because the joke was necessarily funny, but as an excuse to lessen the overwhelmingly serious mood of the whole situation. However, the laughing did result in another awkward silence in which neither of them knew what to say. It left them just standing there, looking at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, Nico decided to speak.

"Seriously, though… thanks man… I know you'll always be at my side."

Pedro smiled. "Ya know it. No matter what happens, man. You and me, against the world."

Nico laughed again, shaking his head. He removed his bottle cap and sat down, as did Pedro. And, for the next two hours, they both sat there, quietly, looking outside at the slowly setting sun. Both knew that this could very well be the last time they ever saw a sunset, the last time they ever sat silently next to each other, the last time they were ever in their hollow. However, no matter what happened, they both would be side by side.

And somehow, that seemed to make everything a little bit better.

* * *

><p><strong>11:50 PM<strong>

It was nearly midnight. Nico and Pedro flew through the dark, nighttime sky, towards their destination: the Christ the Redeemer statue. Even as they exited the rainforest, a good distance away from the statue, and though it was a dark, starless night, the massive figure of Jesus of Nazareth stood out from it, clearly visible against the dark Rio backdrop from a mile away.

Most of the flight was in silence. Neither of them knew what to say to the other. Nico had grabbed his bottle cap and left the hollow while Pedro was—or so he thought—taking a nap, in order to spare Pedro the danger of death, only to be surprised with the cardinal's flying form catching up to him a minute later. Nico had greeted Pedro with a look—a sad, desperate, yet grateful look—to which Pedro had responded with an "I ain't gonna leave you" grin. From there on in, so far, the flight had been in silence; nothing needed to be said.

The statue was growing as the distance between it and the birds lessened—an uneasy reminder to Nico of the fate they both would probably meet once they actually got there: Thiago and Carlos hiding in the darkness, waiting for the perfect time to strike. He and Pedro wouldn't even stand a chance. However, Nico knew it wouldn't be over quickly; it wouldn't be one of those "dead before they hit the floor" scenarios. The eagles would take their sweet time with the two smaller birds, enjoying every twitch, every scream…

And Pedro was willing to endure all of this just so Nico didn't have to endure it alone. Nico turned and looked at Pedro, looking straight ahead, flying though the perpetual darkness. Why was Pedro being so stupid? Throwing everything away just so they could die together? Even though he asked himself this question, he already knew the answer: Pedro, though sometimes a little rough around the edges, was one of the most loyal birds he had ever met. He never abandoned a friend.

Still, Nico felt guilty. "Pedro, man," he began, "go back to the hollow! Don't do this! This is between me and Thiago, not you!"

Pedro turned his head towards Nico, gave a cocky grin, and replied, "I thought we already went over this. You're starting to sound like a broken record." Pedro gave a little laugh.

Though cool on the outside, on the inside, Pedro was just as nervous as Nico was. But he didn't show it. Maybe if he acted like everything was going to be okay, it would be—or at least he and Nico would start to believe so.

However, Pedro wasn't concealing his real feelings as well as he thought he was. Nico could see right through his guise. How? Pedro's eyes. They had a nervous, anxious look in them, along with a glint of sadness, and dreadful anticipation. Nico had known Pedro for many years, and knew when he was lying, knew how to tell his real emotions, knew how to identify what the cardinal's eyes revealed.

Pedro was scared stiff in reality. He didn't show it, however, for Nico's sake—perhaps to make Nico believe that they might actually get out of this alive. No matter what the reason was, he was doing it for Nico.

"Thank you, Pedro," Nico suddenly said.

Pedro looked at Nico, a little puzzled. "For what, man?"

"For everything. For being my friend when no one else would. For protecting me when I couldn't. For making sure no one messed with me, that I was okay. When you met me, I was just a little bird who had wound up in Rio with no one, nowhere to stay, no friends, nothing to live for. You changed all of that." Nico sighed. "Whatever ends up happening tonight, I just want you to know that I appreciate everything you've ever done for me."

Pedro had no idea how to respond to that. Nico had just said what were basically his goodbyes. Leaving no loose ends. How was Pedro supposed to respond to that?

"Nico…" Pedro began in a shaky voice. "Don't say stuff like that. Don't say goodbye, man." Pedro had to take a deep breath to keep his composure. "This time tomorrow, we'll be partying like there's no tomorrow…" Pedro was glad that it was dark outside, so that Nico couldn't see the tears dripping from his eyes.

Nico could hear the struggle in Pedro's voice: the struggle not to cry. Like earlier, he felt his eyes begin to water.

For the next minute or two, the flight was completely silent, the two birds getting closer and closer to the statue, their time of solitude running out quickly. Neither of them knew what to say next. They both just flew next to one another, the air running into their faces, drying their tears.

Finally, the statue was only a few hundred feet from them, looking as tall as ever sitting atop its own, private little mountain. Not wanting to land without saying one final thing to Nico, Pedro suddenly spurted out, without being able to stop himself, "Nico, you're my best friend, man. Always know that, no matter what happens down there…"

They were now directly above the statue, and descending.

"Pedro…" Nico started, "I—"

Nico never got to finish what he was about to say, for at that instant, he was suddenly being pushed through the air at incredible speeds, bottle cap flying off of his head, the world moving in a blur around him. Something was tightly wrapped around his chest and wings, so tight, he couldn't even move and could barely breath.

However, his being pushed through the air didn't last very long; within seconds, he was pushed, with tremendous force, into a hard surface. He let out a cry from the pain that radiated from his back, closing his eyes against it. He could hear a similar cry, obviously emitting from Pedro a couple feet away.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you and your friend? I'm so sorry, I'll try to be more careful next time!"

Nico knew that voice! Forcing his eyes open, he saw a form towering many feet above him: Thiago. His talons were wrapped very tightly around Nico. A few feet away, he could see Carlos doing the same to Pedro. He could also see where they were: on the head of the massive Christ the Redeemer statue.

Thiago grinned down at the helpless canary in his clutches. "I was just flying around when, out of the darkness, who do I see but my good friends Nico and Pedro." The tone in his voice was overly nice. He was toying with Nico… and loving every second of it. "I knew you would come. That's so noble of you… and also, a very, very big mistake."

Thiago gave a sudden, sharp squeeze on Nico, who was already struggling to breath though Thiago's talons' clutches. He gasped desperately for breath, trying to force air into his lungs. This caused Thiago some sick form of enjoyment, which caused him to squeeze on Nico even tighter. Nico's gasps became even louder as less and less air entered his lungs. Pedro heard this.

"Let him go!" Pedro screamed from Carlos' clutches, who, while squeezing Pedro, wasn't doing it nearly as hard as Thiago was to Nico—Thiago wanted to kill both of them himself, one at a time. "Let him go or I'll kill you!"

Thiago feigned a terrified gasp. "_You'll kill me? No, please don't hurt me!_" This turned into a chilling laugh. "Yeah, good luck with that!" He gave Nico another squeeze.

Nico writhed in agony. His ribs felt like they were going to cave in. No oxygen was entering his body. His vision was getting darker and darker, fuzzier and fuzzier. His body involuntarily started to convulse, demanding oxygen. However, even this convulsing started to die down as Nico got weaker and weaker. He desperately tried to breath in, yet no air would enter his body. His lungs were burning. He needed air. He was about to pass out from lack of oxygen when, suddenly—unexpectedly—Thiago loosened his grip drastically. Nico gasped for breath, sucking as much air as his lungs could hold, chest heaving.

Thiago chuckled darkly. "You thought I was going to kill you? Oh, no, no, no! I like to play with my food first."

Nico tried desperately to wriggle free of Thiago's strong clutches, which, even though they weren't as tight as they had been a few seconds ago, still help fast on to Nico. They were too strong to break.

Thiago again laughed. "I really do love it when my prey tries to fight back. It makes the kill so much more… _invigorating!_"

"You son of a bitch!" This infuriated yell came from the still pinned down Pedro, who was, like Nico, trying desperately to escape his captor's talons. Unfortunately for Pedro, like Thiago, Carlos was too very strong, and this strength proved impossible for Pedro to overcome.

Carlos gave a sharp, powerful, painful squeeze to Pedro, which caused the cardinal to momentarily gasp for lost air. The black eagle looked down at Pedro. "I'd be careful what I say, if I were you. Well, actually, you're going to die anyways, so say whatever you want."

Pedro wanted to say something to the eagle… he just didn't know what. He was completely helpless. If the eagle wanted to kill him now, he could easily do so. Pedro was completely at Carlos' mercy. While looking into the eagle's cold eyes, he lost his voice.

"So, Carlos!" Thiago called over to his eagle friend. "What should we do to these two? I want to make this… _special_ for them!" He smiled menacingly down at Nico, who looked fearfully up at the tall eagle. "We could always squeeze them until they pop! Gouge out their eyes! I've always wanted to see what the intestines of a canary were like! And I've always wondered how big a cardinal's heart was! There are just so many options to choose from!"

Nico was afraid. Not only was he going to die, but also, the eagles were going to guarantee a slow, painful, gory death, not a merciful, quick one. He glanced over at Pedro, to find that Pedro was doing the same to him. They both shared a quick look into each other's eyes, before Thiago continued his "speech":

"I think I'm pretty partial to the 'intestines.' There's just something about them that makes them _extra fun!_"

Nico would have been appalled by Thiago's reasoning, if another fear hadn't arisen in his gut—or more like, pressed down on it. Thiago had maneuvered one of his talons so that the point rested on Nico's lower belly, and was slowly pressing down, the pain steadily increasing along with the pressure. Trembling, he tightly closed his eyes, waiting for the searing pain, for his insides to be on the outside.

"As much as I have loved out little conflict over the past couple of years," Thiago said finally, "I'm afraid that it will have to end here." He pressed his talon harder against Nico, nearly breaking the skin. "I just want you to know, Nico, that this is completely personal." He took a deep breath. "Oh well, we'd best get started."

Suddenly, Nico felt the pain flair up as the talon pressed down harder and harder. He tried desperately to move out of its way, to break free of the talons holding him down. Unfortunately, he was too well restrained.

Finally, he had to resort to begging. "Please!" he begged. "Don't do this! _Please!_" His voice raised several octaves as the pain became unbearable.

"Stop!" Pedro yelled from Carlos' talons, trying, in vain, to wriggle out of them. "Don't!"

However, Thiago didn't listen. He pressed down harder and harder, when the tip of the talon finally broke the skin and was pushed into Nico. The pain was now completely unbearable, and Nico let out an anguished scream.

"Thiago!"

Through the pain, Nico could hear Thiago, almost inaudibly, growl. The pain in his stomach lessened as the talon was removed. Nico sighed in relief, breathing heavily from the previous anticipation and agony. Looking up, he saw Rafael, and—of all the people he could have brought for backup—Blu, fly onto the head of the statue.

Rafael walked right up to Thiago, even though Thiago towered almost a foot above the toucan. "Let them go, now," Rafael said evenly, calmly.

Thiago didn't move. He just stood there. The talon was hovering over Nico's stomach, threatening to—without a moment's notice—plunge into it. He glared at the two birds.

"Let. Them. Go. _Now_." Rafael growled at the bigger eagle, glaring daggers at him. Nico could see Rafael's face. The toucan was angrier than Nico had ever seen him be before. His beak was clenched, his eyes looked almost murderous.

"Yeah," Blu said, a good couple of inches behind Rafael. "Let them go, or we'll have to… do some very bad stuff to you!" Blu folded his blue wings over his chest, seemingly satisfied with his input. Rafael looked over at Blu, giving him a strange look.

Thiago faked fear. "No! Don't do bad stuff to us!" He turned his head to Carlos. "We'd better let them go!"

Carlos began to laugh, thinking Thiago was kidding about the last part. However, he was more than surprised to see Thiago release his hold on the yellow canary under him, and step aside, using a wing to gesture to Nico to join Rafael and Blu, smiling pleasantly.

Carlos looked puzzled. "Uh… Thiago…?"

Still smiling, Thiago looked over at the other eagle. "We don't want to be hurt, now do we?" Though this was said in a mocking tone of voice, there was something in it that told Carlos to do what Thiago said. So, shrugging, he also released his hold on his captive, and stepped aside.

Nico looked up curiously at Thiago. He was_ letting him go?_ Thiago _never_ let anybody go, _especially_ not him and Pedro.

Thiago smiled down at Nico. "Go on, Nico." That was the only explanation he offered as he continued to gesture with his black wing towards the toucan and the macaw.

"_Nico!_" Pedro was flying as fast as he possibly could towards Nico, so fast that he could barely stop before overshooting Nico. "_You okay, man?_"

Nico tried to sit up, to tell Pedro he was fine, but was suddenly reminded of the shooting pain in his stomach. He groaned, and held his wing over his wound, lying back down.

"Let me help you!" With that, Pedro, seemingly pulling Nico's beloved bottle cap out of thin air, handed Nico the cap—which he promptly placed on top of his head—and grabbed Nico's back, and slowly began to pull him up into a sitting position.

With Pedro supporting him, his wound didn't hurt as much. Carefully lifting up his wing, he saw that it was partially stained with crimson red blood, as were the feathers around the puncture. Looking at it, he saw that the wound made by the talon pressed into him wasn't _too_ bad. It was a small hole with just some blood leaking out.

_Thank God just the tip stabbed me,_ Nico thought to himself.

"Sorry 'bout that," Thiago said, smiling still. Somehow, Nico didn't believe Thiago was sincere. "You'd better get that checked out." The eagle's smile had a devious trait about it.

"C'mon, man, lets go," Pedro said to Nico, helping him to his feet, the canary holding his bleeding stomach.

Pedro, too, thought it was weird that Thiago and Carlos were just letting them go, when they could have easily taken both Rafael and Blu, and still kill him and Nico. However, he was willing to take any excuse to make sure Nico was okay, and not mortally injured. By the sounds of Nico's screaming, Rafael and Blu hadn't arrived a moment too soon.

"Hey, Rafi," Pedro said, making his way slowly to the duo, supporting the slightly injured Nico. He smiled lightly.

Rafael looked angry with them. "_I told you two not to come here! Don't you two ever listen to a word I say?_" He turned to Nico, and the scolding look he had was replaced with a parental, concerned look. "Are you okay, _amigo_? Do you need more help?"

Nico couldn't help but smile. Man, was he glad to see Rafael, and even Blu, right now. "No, I think I can make it on my own now." Stepping away from Pedro, Nico was able to stand up straight, though his stomach still hurt a little, causing him to groan a little. "Hey, Blu. Where's Jewel?"

"Back at the hollow," Blu answered. He turned an accusing glance towards the toucan. "We were sleeping peacefully when Rafael comes barging in looking for you two. Next thing I know, he's dragging me out of my cozy nest at midnight to look for you two."

Pedro rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry to make you wake up and save our lives. Next time, I'll make sure we're almost killed in the afternoon."

Blu looked around Nico and Pedro, at the eagles. "Did you _try_ and look for the biggest possible eagles to tick off?"

Before anyone else could respond, Rafael broke in, anxiously looking over at the still smiling Thiago. He whispered, "I'm so sorry to interrupt this back and forth, but it seems that we _still_ have a situation here. What are we going to do about the e-a-g-l-e-s? It's not like they let you go out of the goodness of their hearts."

As if on cue, Thiago stepped forward, wings pressed together, still smiling pleasantly. "I would _love_ for you guys to be able to converse for as long as you like, but we _do_ have a schedule, and so, we should get this over with."

Suddenly, it occurred to Rafael why the eagles had let Nico and Pedro go. Spinning around, as did the others, he noticed that Carlos was now in back of them, slowly closing in, almost definitely by Thiago's direction while they were talking. His completely crow-black color had allowed him to sneak around them, to the back of their group, completely undetected.

They had been rallied into a single group, danger closing in on both sides.

_A single, efficient sweep,_ Rafael realized.

Thiago saw that Rafael and the others had realized what the eagles' intentions were. Thiago's smile widened. "Unfortunately, it got a little more complicated when you and your blue friend arrived, and, since there are only two of us, and four of you, it would be impossible for us to _take our time_ with _all_ of you. So, you two get off lucky. We'll have to do this quickly to you and the blue bird, and resume our _'conference'_ with the pipsqueaks. Nothing personal. You two just got in the way."

Blu gulped. What he had thought was originally a quick find-and-retrieve task had suddenly, inexplicably, turned into a death threat. He had Jewel and his three chicks to return home to. He had to do something. So, mustering up all of his courage, he stepped forward, towards the head eagle.

"Um, hi… Thiago, I think you name is? I'm Blu. Like the cheese, but…" He trailed off once he looked up into Thiago's cold eyes, which contrasted his smile. "Um… yeah, never mind about that. So… is there anything you want?"

Thiago cocked his head to the left, and for a moment, a puzzled look crossed his face. Then, he realized what this bird was trying to do: appease him. Though he was really uninterested in what the unconfident bird had to offer, he feigned interest. Smiling again, he asked, "What did you have in mind?"

Blu, believing he was getting somewhere, continued, basing what he said off of various gangster and cop movies he had seen. He put on a smile. "It's not about what _I_ want. It's about what _you_ want. So, what _do_ you want?"

Thiago almost laughed at the naïve bird's act. He pretended to think, placing his wing under his beak. "Hmm… what do I want…? I don't know… it might be too much…"

_Perfect,_ Blu thought to himself. _Tyler Blu Gunderson, you are smooth._ "What is it?"

Thiago pretended to be shy. "Well… I don't know…"

"Anything."

Thiago pretended to conflict with himself whether or not he should tell. He pretended to decide to tell. "Well…" His smile suddenly turned eerie, his eyes containing a malicious glint to them. "I want you to shut up, you and the toucan dead on the floor, and Tweety and chubby to have their insides wrapped around their little necks. Is that within the realm of comprehension?"

Blu's face dropped at this appalling statement.

Thiago's smile was replaced with a laugh. "Ahh, I _love_ giving false hope to desperate, _naïve_ birds."

Blu laughed nervously. "Uh… I think our business here is done." With that, he was suddenly back at the group, as far away from Thiago as possible without getting too close to Carlos, who was still creeping up behind the group.

"Unfortunately," Thiago continued, "not only did that get you absolutely _nowhere_, but it wasted my time. And seeing as I now have to make up for lost time…"

Rafael again turned to look back at Carlos. Suddenly, the toucan got an idea. Turning back to Thiago, he asked, "Isn't this a little unfair? I really _didn't_ expect this. I'm actually _surprised_. I didn't think you two would need to surround us to finish us off…"

Thiago chuckled. "Ah, Rafi, Rafi… I see what you're trying to do. Trying to persuade me into evening the odds…" He noted his superior size. "…Well, as much as possible." The eagle thought for a quick second. "Fine, I'm game."

Rafael couldn't have been anymore surprised. He hadn't actually believed that it would have worked!

Thiago noticed his look of surprise. "Why am I doing this? Well, besides not wanting to deal with you and your… _'Negotiator'_… I want to have the pleasure of torturing these two all to myself. I know it's cliché, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for those types of things!" He looked at Carlos, who was now less than a foot away from the group. "Carlos, you can kill Rafi and the annoying one. Have fun."

"Hey!" Blu yelled. "Who are you calling an—"

He didn't have enough time to finish that statement, because Rafael was suddenly pulling him forward as Carlos lunged at them. Thanks to Rafael's quick reflexes, they managed to dodge Carlos' deadly talons by millimeters.

Without another word to Nico and Pedro, Blu and Rafael were speeding off into the night, the dark eagle hot on their tails.

Thiago, Nico, and Pedro were now left alone. Thiago shifted his attention to the two small birds. "So… here we are." Anticipation was evident in the eagle's voice. "Together, alone… at last." He smiled eagerly. "So, you two can either just accept your fate and die quick—well, quick-_er_—or, you can fight back, and postpone the inevitable. Your choice."

Nico, who had suddenly newfound confidence, knowing that Rafael and Blu were now fighting besides them—figuratively besides them, not literally—raised his wing. "Is you screwing off an option, also?"

Thiago smiled wider, obviously pleased. "Now there's the Nico I know! Watching that confident attitude disappear while I peel the flesh from your bones will make the moment all the more sweeter."

"Wow, man," Pedro put in, fighting off the fear inside of him. "Nice imagery. Ever consider taking up writing?"

"I have, actually. My first story is gonna be about the exact instant when I started to kill you two." He looked at his wing, as if he was wearing a watch. "Oh, look at that. That's _now_!"

Instantly, Thiago was lunging at Nico and Pedro, rushing at them, talons at the ready, gleaming in the moonlight. Nico and Pedro instinctively propelled themselves into the air with their wings, flying in opposite directions, fearfully trying to evade the mighty eagle.

Thiago just barely missed the two birds as they split up. Did that stop him? Nope. Being angled a little towards the left, his first instinct, which he promptly followed, was to pursue Pedro first, who had chosen that direction to fly in. Spreading out his massive wingspan, he took flight and was soaring after the cardinal.

Pedro had barely been in the air for five seconds when he suddenly heard the sound of rushing wind behind him. He turned his head to see what exactly was behind him, though he already knew what the answer would be. That still didn't stop him from emitting a yelp of fear as he realized just _how_ close Thiago was: within a foot, and gaining fast. This eagle was ambitious.

Pedro knew that, this time, there were no buildings to duck in between, no trees, leaves, and branches to hide among. This time, there was no chance of outrunning Thiago; he flapped his wings harder and harder, but the increased speed was still no match for the speed generated by Thiago's sweeping wings. Within seconds, the eagle was right behind Pedro, ready to strike with his mighty talons.

Then, Thiago swung at Pedro.

Pedro, being so small, was able to change his course easily—less momentum. He sharply turned to his left at almost a right angle, narrowly avoiding a full on hit from the fearsome talons coming at him. However, he couldn't avoid the entire blow. While he had managed to make the talons miss his body, his right wing was not so fortunate. Pedro screamed as he felt a searing pain engulf his entire wing as Thiago's talons ripped into it, sending blood, feathers, and flesh in all directions. With flight now aerodynamically impossible, the head of the statue—which he was luckily still over, for the ground was hundreds of feet below him—rushed up to meet him as he plummeted down towards it, about ten feet from the sickeningly long drop to the ground below. The impact completely knocked the wind out of him, and he also gave a cry of pain as he landed on his mangled wing.

Nico heard Pedro cry out somewhere behind him. Completely halting his flight, he turned around, and was barely able to make out in the darkness the small shape of Pedro, now back on the head of the statue, lying down. Beneath him, a small pool of red liquid formed. Blood.

Nico didn't even give the danger that laid before him a second's thought. That was Pedro, his friend, who was hurt down there. Without even looking around for Thiago, he adjusted the bottle cap on his head, and flew back towards Pedro.

Within seconds, he landed besides Pedro. Crouching down besides his friend, who still lay on the ground, but was now clutching his wing, he said, "Don't worry Pedro, I'm here!"

Through the agonizing pain, Pedro managed to groan out, "My wing!" He groaned in pain. Blood stained his black, grey, and white feathers.

Nico looked worriedly down at his injured friend. "Don't worry, Pedro, we'll get you help soon." Nico was fully aware that this was probably a lie, and chances were that they would be dead within a few minutes.

"Wow, isn't this so sweet!" Thiago landed just feet behind Nico and Pedro, speaking in a voice one would use to talk to a baby. "Little Nico couldn't leave his friend, so he's come back to face the world with him. How _heroic_!" Thiago returned his voice to its usual, dark, menacing self. "Unfortunately, it's also a _very_ bad career decision. You seem to have a problem with that tonight."

Nico could hear Thiago's long talons scraping against the stone statue's head. He was just _waiting_ for Nico to turn around. Thiago wanted to make sure Nico could see his murderer.

Nico took a deep breath. If he didn't so something now, Thiago would kill both of them, here and now. Swallowing all of his fear, he did something Thiago never expected: charged him head on. He suddenly stood up, turned around, and shot into the air, towards Thiago. Thiago was so taken by surprise that the canary would even attempt something so suicidal, that he didn't even have time to react before the canary latched onto his head.

While it may seem like a wimpy move, it was the only thing Nico could think of. And besides, Thiago couldn't kill them if he couldn't see them. So, the first thing he did when he latched onto the eagle's head—which was as big as him—was to go for the eyes.

However, Nico was unsuccessful. Thiago suddenly started jerking his head in every direction, trying to get Nico off of him. The canary couldn't get a steady shot at even one of his eyes.

"Get off me, you runt!" Thiago screamed in rage. Grabbing Nico's leg with his wing, Thiago pulled on Nico, _hard_, in an attempt to get him off of his head.

_I have to do something!_ Nico thought. He had to slow Thiago down somehow. He was going to kill them. He desperately tried to cling to the eagle's head. However, Thiago was too strong. The eagle soon managed to tear Nico from his head, and threw him down on the ground as hard as possible.

Nico hit the ground with a clearly audible thud a short distance away from Thiago. The breath was knocked out of him, and his side, which had made contact with the ground before any other part of his body, was killing him. However, he couldn't let that keep him down. He had to stop Thiago.

So, refusing to be put down, he stood up defiantly, ignoring the pain in his side, and turned to face Thiago.

That's when the intense pain hit him.

It was so horrible, so intense, so burning, that Nico couldn't even scream. His body refused to respond to his brain; the pain paralyzed him. He couldn't process anything other than the pain. All he could do was stand there, eyes wide from the shock, the agonizing pain shooting through his body. He could here Pedro screaming something, but even though he was right behind Nico, Pedro's screams sounded far off. Distant.

Finally, he was able to locate the source of the pain: his lower stomach. Slowly looking down, he saw what was causing him such horrible pain.

From his spot a few feet away, Thiago, once Nico had stood up, had thrust his talon into Nico's lower stomach, and, though he was far enough away for the entire talon not to impale Nico, a good inch or so still made it into the canary. An inch for a little canary could be lethal.

Blood leaked from the wound, traveled down his stomach, dripping onto the cold, stone on which Nico stood; a grotesque image to accompany the equally grotesque pain.

Suddenly, the talon, which was inside of Nico, jerked free, causing Nico to give a pained yelp, for that was all he could manage. With nothing supporting him anymore, the wounded canary crumpled to the ground, curling up into a ball around the wound, trying desperately to staunch both the bleeding and the pain by putting pressure on the stab wound. The blood soaked into the feathers on his stomach and wings, replacing the bright yellow with a copper red-brown. Nico felt like he was going to pass out from the sheer pain. His bottle cap, unnoticed, fell off of his head, to the surface of the stone head of the statue, rolled a little ways, and fell a couple of inches away.

"_NICO! NO!_" Pedro watched as Nico crumpled to the ground, unmoving, curled into a little, protective ball. Biting through the pain that still plagued his wing, he managed to stand up, clutching the blood-soaked wing. He rushed over to Nico, under whom a large, bloody puddle was starting to form.

"_Nico!_" Pedro ran in front of the curled up Nico, so that he could see Pedro. The cardinal dropped to the ground, lying next to Nico. He could see that the blood had soaked onto the feathers on his wings and stomach.

"Pedro…" That was all Nico could manage. The pain was too much.

"It's gonna be okay…" Pedro couldn't think of what to say next. What could he? Nico was on the ground, possibly dying, while a large, murderous eagle stood over them. Given the situation, that was all he could think of. Worst of all, he knew it was a lie.

Already, Pedro could see that Nico's breaths were now shallower and faster. His eyes were starting to glaze over. Nico started to cough. Blood was sprayed onto the ground as Nico's body desperately tried to cough up the blood. This hit Pedro with the cold, hard fact that he had been praying wasn't true:

Nico was dying.

"Aww, poor Nico." Thiago walked up to the two laying down birds. Though his words expressed sympathy, the tone of his voice and the glint in his eyes revealed his true emotion: thrill. He looked proudly down at the dying Nico. He finally did what he had dreamed of doing for so long. He had run that little canary through… well, not _all_ the way through. That could, however, be changed very soon.

Looking down, Thiago saw Nico's green and blue bottle cap lying at his feet, topside up. He smiled. "I can't say you didn't have it coming, my little yellow friend." He smiled even wider as Pedro looked up at the eagle with a burning stare. "That's what happens when you mess with the wrong birds." With that, he brought up his left leg, and powerfully sent it down on Nico's beloved bottle cap. It didn't stand a chance. Thiago's powerful stomp flattened half of the bottle cap, causing the rim of the cap to split, creating two, sharp edges. For good measure, the eagle gave it another stomp, further flattening the bottle cap, and further splitting the rim, which now formed two sharper, more projecting edges.

Nico watched as Thiago ruthlessly destroyed his prized possession, the token of his and Pedro's friendship. He wanted to kill that oversized bird. He hurt his friend, stabbed him, and destroyed his most valued possession—the bottle cap, which he had found with Pedro, when he had no other friends in Rio; when he was a small, defenseless, unknown canary.

Thiago watched the sadness and anger in Nico and Pedro's eyes grow as the damaged bottle cap lay before them. They knew that he was going to kill them, that he could, and would, do whatever he wanted to them, and that there was nothing they could do to stop him.

Smiling even wider for what must have been the hundredth time in ten minutes, he got his talons ready, and slowly stalked towards the duo. "This is going to be _so_ fun."

* * *

><p><strong>So that was the chapter, with <strong>_**another**_** cliffhanger! What's going to happen next? Will Nico die? Will Thiago be stopped? Will I ever stop asking these cheesy, Batman-esque questions? You'll find out next chapter!**

**And please, leave a comment on how **_**you**_** would continue on from here if this were your story. Even though I already know how the story is going to end, I really **_**am**_** interested! I like knowing how everyone's brains tick! (Evil laugh.)**

**So… enough of my pointless rambling. See ya next chapter!**


	4. It Is Finished

**Yay! This is the second to last chapter of the story! I can't believe that I have been writing this story for **_**over**_** a month, and that I'm actually going to finish a story that is longer than one chapter (which is a first for me)! I am going to try and write some of the final chapter tonight. My goal is to have it posted by Sunday, before vacation ends, or early next week.**

**So, to those of you who predicted what is going to happen next, good job! I don't think anyone got it 100%, whether it was because of incorrectness, or vagueness, but if I took bits and pieces from each prediction, I would basically have most of this chapter. That really surprised me!**

**So, in this chapter, the **_**major**_** conflict in the stories "**_**Fight or Flight?**_**" and "**_**Murderous Intentions**_**" is **_**finally**_** wrapped up! How? I will not tell. You'll have to read for yourselves. So, enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Murderous Intentions<strong>

**Part Four**

"Keep flying!" Rafael yelled to Blu, who was flying right besides him.

"What do you _think_ I'm doing?" was Blu's breathless response.

He and Rafael were flying through the night at full speed ahead, not in any particular direction, but in the _opposite direction_ of a particular direction: the one from which Carlos was flying from. He was ambitiously flying after them, with the intent to kill.

The Christ the Redeemer statue shrank into the distance, swallowed up by the night. They were being chased away from it, so as they couldn't bother Thiago's "meeting" with Nico and Pedro.

All that ran through Rafael's head was: _We need to help them! They don't stand a chance alone against Thiago!_

Yet, at the moment, there was no way possible that Rafael and Blu could help them; they had their own problems. They barely stood a chance against Carlos. For the past few minutes, they had been flying from the deranged eagle, which was almost invisible in the night thanks to his pitch-black feathers. Rafael and Blu had larger wingspans than Nico and Pedro, and so were able to fly faster than them. While the eagles had nearly overtaken Nico and Pedro during their numerous chases around Rio in a matter of seconds, Rafael and Blu were able to keep a distance between them and the eagle.

But Carlos, larger still, was gaining on them, quicker than they would have liked. Within a minute, the eagle would be right behind them, slashing away.

Suddenly, Rafael got an idea. "Blu! The rainforest! Head for the rainforest! We can lose him in the trees!"

Blu looked over to where Rafael was pointing with his black wing—at the dense rainforest barely half a minute's flight away. Hopefully, it was dense enough to lose the eagle not ten feet behind them, because Rafael, with Blu very closely in tow, were already speeding towards it.

Carlos, who realized what the two birds were going to do, forced his wings to flap faster. While he would hands down be the winner in a race for speed, the smaller birds were always nimbler. They would be able to weave in between all of the tightly pushed together trees faster than he could.

Blu noticed than Carlos was gaining quicker than ever before.

"Rafael! Fly faster!"

Rafael looked behind him, and realized that Carlos was now only a foot behind them, talons ready to strike. Through the darkness, he could see the eagle's eyes narrowed, anticipating the kill.

Suddenly, Rafael and Blu were enveloped by the dense rainforest, flying in between a gap between two trees only a matter of a foot or two wide. Carlos had cut down his speed drastically in order to safely maneuver his larger frame between the trees. Blu and Rafael, having a smaller stature than the eagle, were able to fly in between the trees a lot quicker.

After weaving through ten trees, the eagle had lost some significant ground. It would be only a matter of time before Carlos completely lost sight of them.

"Follow me!" Blu suddenly yelled. "I know a way we could lose him even faster!" With that, Blu, followed by a slightly puzzled Rafael, took off to the right, flying in between some especially close together trees, far enough apart for Blu and Rafael to safely fly through, but close enough together so that Carlos either had to cut his speed drastically or fly around the trees altogether.

"I'll kill you!" came Carlos' voice from at least thirty feet away, obviously agitated that he was being outsmarted and outrun by two smaller birds. "When I get my wings on you, you're dead! Both of you!"

As they both continued to speed through the trees, Blu smiled confidently over at Rafael. "I told you this would work. That eagle will _never_ get us now!"

Suddenly, his confidence was gone.

Blu and Rafael erupted from the tree line of the forest, and wound up in the worst possible place to be: a clearing. Technically still within the forest, the clearing was over a thousand feet from one side to another.

Rafael looked over to Blu fearfully. "Never is a strong word. Keep flying!"

As Rafael and Blu frantically sped across the clearing, they heard the eagle finally break free of the trees that had restricted his speed. Now, there was nothing between him and his prey but open air. They heard the air rush underneath his wings.

"I got you two now!"

Stealing a look over his wing, Rafael could see that Carlos was gaining faster and faster, fueled by ambition and fury. An eager smile was on his beak, his long talons ready to rip into the first bird he caught.

Rafael looked around. There had to be _something_ they could use to their advantage. The only thing he saw was a little ways off to their left: in the middle of the clearing was a tall, rocky cliff, maybe the height of a house—a strange place for one to be. It was a straight up, ninety-degree climb. At the top of the cliff face, a large boulder jutted out over the ground, abnormally thick vines—like the ones that also hung down the cliff face—wrapped around it. How could this be used in their advantage? Rafael had no idea. But right now, anything was better than flying straight forward, _absolutely_ unprotected.

"This way!" Rafael took off to the left at a sharp turn, heading towards the cliff. Blu was closely following. He hoped whatever Rafael had in mind would work.

Unfortunately, when Rafael and Blu made this sudden left turn, Carlos, from his spot ten or so feet behind the two birds did the same. This rapidly decreased the distance between the eagle and the two fleeing birds. He readied his talons. This should be quick.

Just a foot from the front of the cliff, Rafael pulled up, flying straight up, parallel to the cliff, as did Blu.

Blu heard the sound of rushing wind behind him, louder than ever. Quickly stealing a glance, he saw Carlos a mere foot behind him. Instantly, he looked straight ahead and flapped his wings quicker. All this did was decrease the time it took Carlos to close the distance between the two. Rafael, noticing Blu speed up, also flapped his wings harder.

Still flying straight up, Rafael and Blu flew around the massive boulder hanging over them, the vines wrapped around it over a couple inches thick. The ends of the thick vines hung down the sides of the boulder like long, gigantic snakes. They had just flown directly over the boulder when Carlos caught up.

One second, Blu was speeding through the air. The next, he was suddenly being pushed through the air by an incredible force. Before he knew what was happening, he was slammed into the boulder. Though he didn't notice it over the wind being knocked out of him, the boulder emitted a loud cracking sound due to the sudden strain exerted on it and its lack of support.

When Blu was finally able to get his bearings, he was greeted with the terrifying image of Carlos towering over him. It was getting hard for Blu to breath since Carlos' talons were wrapped tightly around the macaw's neck, and tightening quickly.

As Blu writhed in his grasp, trying desperately to suck in oxygen, Carlos chuckled evilly. His cold eyes looked upon the blue bird in his grasp. Smiling menacingly, he half whispered, "Gotcha."

The eagle squeezed Blu's neck especially hard, making Blu gasp, in vain, for air. The trapped bird was starting to see spots. He needed air.

Carlos didn't let up. He took immense pleasure in Blu's suffering. Beneath his talons, Blu's movements were starting to get less and less as his body started to shut down from lack of oxygen. Blu was struggling to stay conscious.

"Too bad. If you hadn't pried into our business, you would have lived longer." Carlos smirked down at Blu, whose eyes were beginning to close and whose movements were beginning to cease. "This can be a warning to—"

Carlos never got to finish that sentence. Before he knew it, something extremely hard hit him upside the head. Suddenly, the world became hazy, fuzzy. Everything was spinning. He let go of the bird underneath him and was desperately trying to regain his footing. Suddenly, there was nothing under his left foot. His balance was thrown off, and before he could process what was happening, he was falling.

The second the eagle's talons had released Blu, he gasped for breath. As the air filled his lungs, the fuzziness and darkness in his vision lifted, though he still felt lightheaded. His vision cleared up so that he just managed to catch Carlos disappearing over the side of the projecting boulder towards the ground thirty feet below.

Rafael flew over to Blu and dropped the heavy rock with which he had used to hit Carlos in the head—grasping it with his feet, he had flown full speed at Carlos and gave him a face full of rock.

"You okay, amigo?" Rafael asked, concerned, as he stood over the gasping macaw.

"Peachy," he responded in a hoarse voice. He shakily stood up, almost stumbling a few times as his lightheadedness almost got the best of him. He cleared his throat and asked in a less hoarse voice, "Where's the eagle?"

"He fell," Rafael replied.

"I know _that_. But I didn't hear… you know… _a thud_."

Rafael and Blu approached the edge of the boulder to look and see if Carlos was on the ground. He wasn't. Somehow, when he fell, he had managed to get tangled up in the thick vines hanging from the outcropping boulder, and now, he was hanging under the rock, suspended by the numerous vines tangled around his body, legs, and wings, violently struggling against his restraints.

Carlos looked up at the two birds with a sneer, his eyes screaming bloody murder. "When I get out of here, I'll kill you!" His struggling increased—desperate slashing, trying to wriggle out of the vines. Unfortunately, this struggling did more bad than good. The rock, which had dangerously low support for its huge mass—which was entirely unsupported—and whose earlier struggle not to fall had gone unnoticed by the birds now started to emit more cracking sounds. Little pebbles that broke free of the boulder could be heard bouncing down the cliff face. Carlos' struggling was putting more force on the rock than it could handle.

"Carlos, stop!" Though he had just been trying to kill them, Rafael didn't want to see him splattered under a gigantic rock. Violence wasn't in his nature.

Carlos didn't seem to hear him, however. He just kept struggling. In fact, the struggling seemed to increase. The boulder on which Rafael and Blu stood shook as its inadequate support began to give out.

"Stop!" Rafael yelled. But again, the big eagle didn't hear him, or at least pretended not to. The toucan could feel the boulder beginning to tilt down towards the ground. He attempted to break through to Carlos one last time. "If you keep doing that, you are going to be splattered under this boulder!"

Carlos, again, didn't stop struggling. However, this time, he actually responded: "If I was you two, I'd run."

Suddenly, the rock gave an especially loud crack, and a shower of pebbles fell from where the rock intersected the cliff. The rock, now with next to no support, suddenly lurched forward a couple inches. Rafael and Blu barely managed to keep their balance.

Now, Carlos finally realized his mistake. But, it was too late. The rock was going to fall. He desperately tried to fly away, but the vines were tangled around him too tightly.

Turning to Blu, Rafael simply said, "Fly!" and quickly took to the air, followed by Blu.

The second Blu's feet left the rock, as if on cue, the rock suddenly gave a louder cracking noise, and fell out from beneath the macaw, sending the rock—along with Carlos entrapped under it—into a thirty foot drop. If the impact with the ground didn't kill Carlos, the massive rock many times his size certainly did. Either way, the rock landed on the eagle with a sickening crunch.

The two birds looked silently down at the fallen rock. They both knew that below it now lay the dead Carlos. Blood oozed from beneath the broken rock.

However, despite his nonviolent nature, Rafael knew that they didn't have time to linger here. Turning to Blu, with urgency in his voice, he said, "Let's go! Nico and Pedro still need our help."

Blu was about to protest to just leaving the body here, when, without waiting to see Blu's reaction, Rafael took off, speeding back towards the Christ the Redeemer statue.

To Blu, the entire situation felt surreal. Rafael just wanted to leave a dead body—this thought gave Blu shivers—under the rock just seconds after the eagle had died, without even giving the sudden death a second's thought. However, Rafael was right. Nico and Pedro needed their help more. So Blu, with a final look down at the fallen rock, took off after the toucan.

* * *

><p><strong>At the Statue<strong>

"Don't worry Nico…" Pedro didn't know how to finish that sentence. What could he say? Everything will be all right? Help is coming? None of these were true. So, instead, he placed his wings on top of Nico's and pushed down, applying even more pressure to the stab wound in an attempt to staunch the bleeding, causing Nico to groan in pain.

It had been thirty seconds since Nico had been stabbed, and already, his eyes were starting to get glazed over, and his breaths were shallow. Blood flowed like a torrent from the hole in his stomach, despite the pressure being applied. Nico's stomach and wing feathers, along with Pedro's wings, were stained red with Nico's blood.

Nico tried desperately to think of a plan, of some way they could make it out of this situation alive. But he couldn't think straight through the pain. It was too much. He could barely breath through it. Unconsciousness threatened to take hold of him. His stomach burned with white-hot pain. His vision was getting blurry, whether it was from the pain, or the loss of blood, or both.

The canary coughed again, spitting up more blood. He knew he was probably going to die. The pain told him so. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that even as Thiago stalked towards them, ready to make them suffer even more (if that was even possible for Nico), Pedro didn't pay the eagle any mind. He concentrated on Nico.

_No! NO!_ That same word ran through Pedro's mind over and over. No, Nico _couldn't_ be dying! But Nico's glazed-over eyes and shallow breaths told him different. And the blood… so much blood…

"Pe-Pedro…" It took every ounce of willpower Nico had to overcome the pain of speaking.

Pedro jerked his head up as Nico spoke. The laying down cardinal shifted himself so that his face was close to Nico's, looking at the canary attentively. He forced himself to smile. "Yeah, Nico?" He wished he could have thought of something better to say.

Shivering in the frigid night air—or maybe it was just Nico, since they were in South America, where it never got below sixty degrees—he struggled to speak; in a weak, hoarse whisper, he said, "I-I'm s-s-orr-y." Nico started to cry. He wasn't sure if it was one hundred percent his emotions or if the blood loss and pain was getting to him. "It's a-all m-my fa-aul-lt." Another violent cough sent blood dripping down his already bloodstained beak.

Normally, Pedro was calm, cool, and collected, probably one of the coolest birds in Rio, with his partying, carefree attitude. Normally, Pedro would have gone ice skating with Satan—since Hell would have _long_ since frozen over—rather then show anyone his sensitive, crying side—if any such thing even existed.

But now, as his best friend lay bleeding—dying—in front of him, _still_ blaming himself for his and Pedro's injuries, and _still_ apologizing to Pedro, he couldn't hold back his emotions. He let the tears flow freely down his face. He didn't attempt to stop them. He didn't care. His best friend was dying, and there was nothing he could do about it. And more than likely, he would be following him.

_No!_ Pedro stopped those thoughts that entered his head. That would imply that he would actually allow Nico to die. He wouldn't. He promised himself. He would not let Nico die. He wouldn't let Nico give up.

"No," Pedro said, a little snappier than he would have liked, tears still dripping onto the stone surface of the statue's head. "It's not your fault. And don't talk like you're…" Pedro couldn't bring himself to say it. "We'll get out of here, man. Count on it." Honestly, he doubted it. But he would try anything to motivate Nico to hang on, even if just for a little bit longer.

Thiago, who now stood directly over the two birds lying down on the hard, stone surface of the statue, didn't like being forgotten so easily. "As much as I would like to let you keep your little illusions and keep going on with your little 'soap opera' moment, I am getting tired of postponing the inevitable. You two just don't know when to accept that you are going to die." The eagle chuckled a little. "As if it would make a difference, anyways."

Suddenly, at that moment, Pedro's sadness was replaced with hatred for Thiago. Before, Pedro had severely hated Thiago. But now, he utterly despised him; loathed him. If he had the chance, Pedro would have killed him then and there. And, even though he didn't have the chance, so to speak, that didn't stop the rage he felt at that moment, and it didn't stop him from trying to unleash it on the malicious eagle.

So, in a rare mood of blinding rage—rage that Thiago had injured him, rage that Thiago thought that he could control their lives, rage that Thiago had hurt Nico—Pedro suddenly shoved himself to his feet and threw himself on Thiago… or more like slammed up against him, as Thiago was feet taller than Pedro. The cardinal did anything he could to cause the eagle pain, mainly clawing, punching, and biting.

Unfortunately, with rage came throwing out reason. As far as Thiago was concerned, the flightless cardinal's assault on him was about as good as Pedro just throwing himself over the edge of the statue. The only difference would be that the latter would result in a quicker death.

Granted, Pedro's attack didn't exactly feel _good_ to Thiago; the cardinal tore out feathers and clawed his skin. But this only lasted a second. Pedro had barely started when Thiago, using his massive wing, knocked Pedro easily away from him.

Pedro hit the ground, and was about to get right back up when, suddenly, the eagle was right above him, talons enclosing him, tightening around the little bird at a frightening pace. Within seconds, Pedro was gasping for air.

The look on Thiago's face was hard to distinguish. It seemed to be a mix of his usual "pleasant-while-I-kill-you" demeanor, mixed with actual agitation and anger. He liked it when his prey fought back, but not when it made him look incapable of disposing of two little birds barely the size of his head.

"You know what?" Thiago said, his agitation clearly rising. "I am _so_ sick of you. Enough games. I'm through with this cat and mouse, with this toying with you." He positioned his talons around Pedro so that one talon's point rested right on the cardinal's throat. "I'm going to end this now. But don't worry, Nico will be joining you soon, so you won't be alone."

"I'll kill you!" Pedro struggled violently against the talons holding him down. Despite his struggling, he could barely move, and Thiago's talons were too strong to break free of. Thiago tightened his talons, making movement for Pedro impossible.

"I find that hard to believe." He pressed the talon down harder on Pedro's throat. "Goodbye, Pedro."

"Hello, Thiago!"

Thiago knew that voice. The voice that had him, for so long, walking on eggshells. He jerked his head towards the source of the voice to see, a mere foot away, Rafael and Blu, flying full speed towards him.

_How?_ Thiago thought in disbelief. _How can they still be alive? Where's Carlos?_

However, these questions would have to wait. He barely had time to think to himself before Rafael and Blu reached him.

Blu was the first to make contact. He went for the eagle's face, for the eyes. While he wasn't able to get a clear shot at the eyes, he was able to claw and bite Thiago's face. Being bigger than Pedro, this did hurt considerably more, but still, it didn't hurt _that_ much.

No, the horrible pain came from the burning in Thiago's right wing. It was a horrible, white hot, searing pain, like someone had torn his wing to shreds. Both of these attacks happened in less than five seconds.

Using his left wing, Thiago grabbed Blu, and, using his superior strength, after a few tries, ripped him from the air and threw him to the ground. Blu barely had time to realize what had happened before Thiago's kick to his face rendered him unconscious.

Thiago finally turned to his right wing to see what happened to it. There was a huge chunk missing out of it, which stained his wing's feathers, and the stone surface beneath him, with blood. Flying a foot away was Rafael, blood smeared all over his beak from biting Thiago's wing, coming in for another attack.

While Blu had attacked the head, where most birds would attack a threat, Rafael had attacked somewhere a little more thought out: the wing. Over a hundred feet into the air, the eagle wouldn't be able to fly. He would be trapped. And while Rafael hated violence, when it came to the immediate well being of his friends and family, he was willing to do anything.

In a mix of fury and pain, Thiago roared, "You!" He couldn't find words to express his fury. Instead, with almost impossible speed, he brought his wing back and swiped it powerfully across Rafael's beak. Instantly, blood started leaking from it, and the toucan hit the ground, out cold.

Thiago inspected his wing. It was missing a huge chuck. He knew that there was no way that he would be able to fly on it. He was stuck up here. He would make sure that everyone with him would suffer greatly.

Pedro looked at all of his unconscious friends. They had come to help. Within seconds, they were down and out. Once again, he and Nico were alone. What could they do? How could they possibly fight—?

Suddenly, Pedro was flying through the air. It was only for a second, though. Before he knew it, the hard, stone surface below him crashed into him, knocking the wind out of the cardinal, who landed maybe a foot away from the edge of the top of the statue's head, where the curved top of the head suddenly curved down to form the giant, straight down sides of the stone Jesus' face. Pedro lay there gasping and groaning as he turned over on his back.

He saw striding towards him a very angry Thiago, undoubtedly the one who had thrown him. Within seconds, the eagle was upon him. He placed his large foot on Pedro's stomach and pushed down hard, his talons digging painfully into Pedro's flesh. The smaller bird couldn't move, and it was getting hard to breath; Thiago was pressing down harder and harder by the second.

Thiago was seething. "You think you could get off that easy? You think you could escape? Think again!" Thiago pressed down especially hard on Pedro, enjoying the smaller bird's writhing and gasps for breath through his own pain. He pressed down his talons—which enclosed the smaller bird—drawing blood from various parts of Pedro's body, from his face to his chest, causing Pedro to grunt in pain. "You thought your little friends could save you? Think again. No one can save you—or your friends. All of you will be dead before the sun rises. Especially that Rafael. Payback for what he did to my wing." He showcased his bloody right wing, which looked strange missing a chunk. "I'll tear chunks out of his body to show him what it's like. And the blue, annoying one. I'll have tons of fun with him.

"But don't think that I forgot you. Oh, no I didn't. I'll make sure you die slowly. Your little canary friend over there will have to hear your screams as he slowly bleeds out, dying alone."

_NICO!_ Pedro thought. He was still over there, bleeding, dying. _Alone_. He should be over there with him. Instead, he was trapped, too small to do anything. But soon, it wouldn't matter. They would all be dead.

"Oh well, enough talking, let's get this started."

* * *

><p>Nico closed his eyes against they pain, wings still applying pressure on the wound. Through the haze of the pain and blood loss, he had witnessed Rafael and Blu's attempt to save him and Pedro. Rafael had managed to injure Thiago's wing, but eventually, the two were overwhelmed, and now, both of them lay unconscious on the ground, soon to be the next victims of Thiago's wrath.<p>

Ten feet away, Thiago was holding down Pedro, preparing for the final kill. He was speaking to Pedro, almost definitely letting him know what he was going to do to everyone, though Nico couldn't hear what was being said. Pedro was desperately trying to free himself, but in vain.

And it was all Nico's fault. Because of him, his friends would die. Pedro would die. Blu would never return home to his three little chicks and Jewel. Rafael would leave behind his eighteen little toucan kids and his beloved Eva. All because Nico hadn't followed Rafael's orders: avoid the three eagles as much as possible. Instead, he had, intentionally in some cases, gone out of his way to give the eagles a hard time. He had thought that they wouldn't dare to hurt him because of Rafael and his connections.

He had been wrong.

Ever since the eagles had beaten him up, it had all gone downhill from there. One second, he was cocky and cheeky with the eagles. Now, he was lying on top of the Christ statue, stabbed in the stomach, bleeding to death. And not only had he destroyed his life, but also _twenty-six others_: Blu's and Rafael's, their wives' and kids', and Pedro's. All because of _him_…

_No!_ he thought. He couldn't let them suffer because of him. He had to do something!

But what? He was dying. Any attempt to rush Thiago, or to do anything beyond stand up—if he could even do that—was suicide.

_Think!_ Still consumed by pain and grogginess, he looked around for something—_anything_—he could use. The only thing that was within his reach was his destroyed bottle cap, but what could he do—?

Suddenly, he got an idea. Gritting his beak against the pain, he slowly dragged himself a couple inches, towards his bottle cap, using one wing to drag himself, and the other to hold his bleeding stomach. Weakly, he picked up the cap with his wing and studied it.

The bottle cap was pretty much flattened. The flattening had resulted in the rim of the cap splitting, which formed two, sharp edges that jutted out.

It was no secret that Nico was great—_amazing_, even—with his bottle cap. He could throw it at a small target thirty feet away, hit the target dead on, make it ricochet off of the target, and catch the bottle cap on the rebound. But now, he wasn't sure if he could. He was wounded—possibly mortally—and his bottle cap was crooked and bent. _Now_, he wasn't sure if he could hit the broadside of a barn with it.

Still, he _had_ to try. But the throw would have to be _perfect_; good wouldn't cut it. All of their lives may depend on it.

With the bottle cap still in wing, he stood up. It was one of the most painful procedures he had ever endured in his live. It felt as if his insides were on fire. He put extra pressure on the wound, to stop any bleeding, to lessen the almost unbearable pain, and to make sure his insides _stayed_ inside—he tried not to think about that last one.

Finally, he was on his feet. He weighed the bottle cap and studied its now bent frame. He imagined its path through the air from every angle he could possibly throw it from; he was a genius at that sort of stuff, from owning and throwing that cap for eight years.

Looking towards Pedro and Thiago, he could see that Thiago had his back turned towards him and was looking down at Pedro.

_Turn towards me!_ Nico willed. But still, Thiago kept his focus on Pedro.

Then Pedro saw him. Their eyes met, Pedro's filled with puzzlement and concern when met with the sight of the severely injured Nico standing up, holding his damaged bottle cap in one wing, and his bloody wound in the other.

"Oh well, enough talking, let's get this started." Thiago was about to plunge his talons into the cardinal, about to begin Pedro's unimaginable suffering, about to make him scream, when he realized Pedro's attention was not on the massive eagle standing over him. Instead, it was on something beyond him. Thiago turned, and was shocked to see Nico was not only still alive, but standing, and for some reason holding his destroyed bottle cap.

This was it. Thiago was turned towards Nico. It was now or never. Thinking a quick, _Thank you, Pedro,_ Nico adjusted the bottle cap in his wing, so that it was at the perfect angle, and so that the sharp edges, which were once the rim, were pointing in the right direction. _One shot._ And so, praying that he had calculated the throw correctly, in what seemed like slow motion, he brought his wing back, closed one eye, snapped his wing forward, and let go of the bottle cap.

Seeming as equally as slow moving as when he threw it, the bottle cap spun through the air, towards its mark, like a Frisbee. However, due to its deformed state, the bottle cap almost instantly skewed off of its original path, moving in a huge arc.

Nico tensed. Had he blown it? _Come on…_

The bottle cap continued to move in its wide arc, moving further and further from its mark. It seemed as if it would miss it entirely. But suddenly, just as Nico had originally predicted, the cap swung back in, again due to its deformed state. It drew nearer and nearer to its mark, and though all of this happened within two seconds, to Nico, it seemed like an eternity.

Then, the small, damaged bottle cap hit the small target Nico had been aiming for, exactly the way he had wanted it to. Before Thiago had even realized what was happening, the small, deformed bottle cap, its two sharp sides in, plunged into his left eyeball, the split, sharp rim becoming lodged deep into it.

Thiago screamed in utter pain. The sudden fire hot pain in his eye caused him to be, literally, blinded by pain. He released the cardinal in his clutches, and Pedro—suddenly forgotten—gasped as air refilled his lungs, for all that mattered to Thiago now was the pain. He stumbled backwards, holding his wings over his bleeding eye. He had stumbled back two steps… three steps… four steps…

But, as his left foot moved down for the fifth step, there was suddenly only empty air under it; he had failed, through the pain, to notice the steepening curve of the top of the statue's head as he moved towards the edge, where the top of the head dropped off to the sides of the face.

Desperately flailing his wings, he tried to regain his lost balance. In vain. It was already too late. And so, with Nico's bottle cap lodged in his eye and his injured wing making it aerodynamically impossible to fly, Thiago, who had terrorized the bird population of Rio de Janeiro for so long, fell backwards off the head of the Christ the Redeemer statue, and was swallowed up by the darkness as he plunged towards the earth nearly one hundred fifty feet below.

Nico looked on as Thiago disappeared over the side of the statue's head. He couldn't stop the weak smile that crossed his beak, despite the intense pain, as Pedro looked from the spot where Thiago had just been, back to Nico, and smiled. Despite Thiago's horrifying end, one fact made it insignificant: _they were alive, and had beaten Thiago_.

Suddenly, the world started spinning. Nico could barely keep his footing. The darkness at the edges of his vision threatened to take hold. He had tried to forget about the wound, about the excessive blood loss. But now, it caught up with him.

The last thing Nico saw before he fell and blacked out was Pedro's smile giving way to a petrified look as Nico, for what was probably his last time, closed his eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>Yep, the final cliffhanger of the story! How will it all end? Who knows? (Well, besides me… :D)<strong>

**I just want to say that, throughout the story, this chapter was by far the chapter that underwent the most changes. Originally, along with Rafael and Blu, Jewel was also supposed to show up, but I decided not to have her for some reason (though that is more concerning the last chapter…) Also, Nico and Thiago were originally supposed to both go over the edge of the statue, but Blu was supposed to catch Nico. And originally, Nico and Pedro were supposed to meet Thiago and Carlos at the bottom of the statue, and were going to make their way up after Blu and Rafael [and Jewel] showed up.**

**That just shows how much progress a story goes through from its conception to when it is actually written. See you next chapter!**


	5. Nico's Guilt

**Hallelujah! This is a very important day! This is the first multi-chapter story that I have completed! I can't believe it. When I look at the date when I first started planning out this story—January 14****th****—I can't believe that it has been nearly two months! And over two months since I wrote and posted the prequel to this! Man, does time pass by so fast…**

**Well, before I go off on a philosophical tangent about time, I would like to thank everyone who read and/or reviewed this with a heartfelt thank you, especially those who reviewed. Reviews are what encourage an author to keep writing. And, to those of you whose stories I haven't reviewed yet, I'm sorry; I barely had time to write this (I wrote this at like 5:00AM—my only free time). This is a relatively short chapter, but I think it is a good ending to the story.**

**So, without further adieu, I leave you to read the final chapter of **_**Murderous Intentions**_**!**

* * *

><p><strong>Murderous Intentions<strong>

**Part Five**

Nico couldn't even open his eyes; the lights were too bright. They made the migraine that he already had even worse. He squeezed his eyes shut and welcomed the darkness that lessened the throbbing in his head. But, as if the headache wasn't enough, the pain in his stomach suddenly hit him. It was a sharp, sore pain, accompanied by a sudden wave of nausea.

He softly groaned. _…What happened…?_ He tried opening his eyes again. This time, the lights were a little less bright. Still squinting, he blinked, each time lowering the brightness of the light invading his eyes. Finally, when he could actually see, he realized he was in a room, a large, white room, with a door and a window—well, technically, he was in a _cage_ inside of a room, a tall cage with a soft, padded floor and two bowls—probably food and water—nearby.

_What happened…?_ Suddenly, all of the memories flooded back: the eagles, being beaten up, Maximiliano being hit by the car, the statue, being stabbed, him throwing the bottle cap, Thiago falling.

Further surveying the room, the first thing he realized was that this was the same room that he was in the last time he was here at the Blu Bird Sanctuary… when those eagles had sent him here after ganging up on him.

The second thing he realized was that, outside of the one window in the room, it was daytime. He had been unconscious for at least a day. Though his thoughts were still a little fuzzy, he remembered that it was nighttime when he was at the statue fighting that eagle alongside Pedro—

_Pedro!_ What had happened to Pedro again? Had he survived? Had he been killed? Injured? Nico tried to sit up, to further survey his surroundings, but another shot of pain in his stomach and a fresh wave of nausea prevented him from doing so. Letting out a small cry of surprise and pain, he instantly lay back down completely.

Suddenly, he remembered. Pedro had been the last thing he had seen before he had blacked out. The cardinal had been looking at him, smiling at first, but suddenly frowning. But was he uninjured? Nico tried to conjure up further images of the event, but couldn't will his mind to do so.

Another throb in his head and another jab in his stomach reminded him of the pain. Trying to blink away his headache, he looked down his body, which only made the headache worse. Despite this, he could see a white bandage wrapped around his midsection, perfectly white and spotless. This contrasted with his messy and extremely ruffled feathers, as if he had a very bad case of bed feathers.

Again, Nico tried to move, but only succeeded in momentarily increasing his soreness, causing him to involuntarily emit a pained groan.

"_**Nico?**_"

Nico jumped. Until now, he had yet to realize that he had company inside of the cage. But now that he was aware, he slowly raised his aching head and looked in the direction that the startled yet hopeful voice had come from; when he located the source, he couldn't help but smile.

Standing not far away was Pedro. The cardinal was staring intently at Nico, hoping that the groan he had just heard was a sign that Nico was finally awake. On his wing, Pedro also had bandages wrapped around it, and like Nico's, they were clean and white; this sight brought back even more memories to Nico—Pedro being slashed in the wing chief among them.

"Ped—?" Nico's voice cut off. It was hoarse and his throat was dry. He coughed several times.

Instantly, Pedro shot over to Nico like a bullet. He stood right next to Nico and looked worriedly down at the injured canary. "_Nico? Are you all right? What's wrong?_"

Once the coughing fit ended, Nico managed to choke out one word: "Water…"

Instantly, Pedro was off. Within seconds, he returned, dragging the relatively large bowl, full of water. He was in such a hurry that some of it managed to escape over the bowl's sides.

Nico was the thirstiest he had ever been in his life. His throat was so parched that he was barely able to choke out that one word, which was followed by the immediate consequence of plunging into another intense coughing fit. When the second fit had passed, the water bowl had long since been besides him.

Nico slowly attempted to sit upright—in vain. An especially sharp jab of pain from his wound prevented him from doing so. He gasped in surprise and pain, and again lay back down, involuntarily holding his bandaged stomach.

Pedro reacted immediately. He sat down right next to the lying canary. "Here, man, let me help you." He maneuvered his good wing underneath Nico's back. "Are you ready?" With a nod from Nico, he slowly and steadily started to help Nico sit up, making Nico do as least work as possibly, the canary still holding his injury. Within a minute, Nico was sitting up, experiencing some discomfort but nothing too horrible.

As quick as he could without hurting himself, Nico plunged his beak into the bowl of water besides him. He could feel the dryness in his throat that had caused him to cough being washed away, once again moistened by the cool water. Nico continued sucking in water for a full half minute. Once his thirst was quenched, he pulled out his beak, gasping, water dripping from his beak and down his front.

Grinning, the canary said weakly, "I've never been so thirsty in my life."

Pedro, wing still supporting Nico, returned the grin. "I can see that. You got more _on_ you than _in_ you!"

Nico laughed, and instantly regretted it. He winced as a relatively minor pain shot through his stomach, followed by another nauseous feeling. Pedro noticed Nico's wince and said, "I'm gonna lay you back down." Slowly, he lowered Nico back onto the padded floor of the cage until Nico was completely lying down, like before, and removed his wing from Nico's back.

Nico took a few deep breaths to try and get rid of the nausea. He only partly succeeded.

Pedro uncomfortably shifted his feet. Looking down anxiously at Nico, he slowly asked, "So… are you feeling better?"

Nico groaned a little. "Well… my stomach is sore and I feel like I might lose my lunch… but besides that, I'm good." Nico slowly rubbed his eyes with his wings. "So… what exactly happened?"

"Yo man, on the Jesus Statue, you were totally beast!" Pedro momentarily reverted back to his old, partying self. "You were like a ninja! You threw your bottle cap like one of those ninja stars right at Thiago! Well… after you got stabbed…" Pedro turned back into his currently anxious, caring self.

Nico nodded, solemnly remembering his bottle cap, which he knew was now destroyed. It felt weird not having anything in his head. But he didn't talk about it. Instead, he said, "I remember _that_. How exactly did I get here?"

"After you got rid of Thiago," Pedro explained, "you were bleeding a lot, and I mean _a lot_. I woke up Blu and Rafael, and I hitched a ride on Blu while Rafael carried you on his back. By the time we got here, you had lost _tons_ of blood—Rafi was _soaked_. Good thing that Linda and Tulio was working late than night! Tulio was working for _hours_ on you, stitching you up and everything—"

_Stitches?_ Nico thought. He gently ran his wing along his bandage, and the little ridges that he felt underneath it confirmed that he indeed had stitches.

"—but still… at first, Tulio didn't think you were going to make it. He said that you lost something like close to half you blood." The cardinal sighed. "He said it would be a miracle if you ever woke up. But eventually, he said your stab wound was staring to heal up good—"

"_Eventually?_" Nico looked at Pedro weirdly. "How long have I been out?"

Pedro seemed to think for a moment, counting to himself softly; Nico heard the number eight somewhere in there. Finally, Pedro answered: "Something like ten days, give or take."

"Ten days!" Nico couldn't believe it. He had been out for nearly two weeks, _unconscious_. "That's a long time!"

Pedro shrugged. "Well, according to what Tulio said, you should be happy you're alive. There really was a time when he was expecting you to…" Pedro didn't finish that thought, and what was left was an awkward silence. Both knew what he meant, but neither wanted to think about it. Finally, Pedro cut through the silence: "Seriously… I'm happy your okay… I thought you were…"—he almost said the "d" word again—"…_not going to make it_," he quickly decided on.

Nico smiled weakly. "You can't get rid of me _that_ easily!" Suddenly, a thought struck Nico. "Whatever _happened_ to Thiago?"

"Well… they found his—_him_—at the bottom of the statue." He didn't want to say 'body.'

Nico shifted uncomfortably. "You mean he's…?"

Pedro nodded.

Nico suddenly felt sick again. Not because of he bad injuries, but because of Thiago. Sure, the eagle had tried to kill them both, and what Nico had done was purely self-defense; he didn't deny that. But a single thought kept echoing throughout his head: _You took a life…_

He had killed someone, taken a life. It didn't matter whose—though perhaps it should have.

"I-I killed him…"

"Yeah, you did." Pedro said this with sort of a tone of pride. However, once he saw the horrified look on Nico's face, he rephrased what he meant. "I meant that you saved us. If you hadn't done what you did, we would both be dead, along with Rafi and Blu. You did the right thing."

"B-But I k-killed—"

Pedro cut him off. "You did it for the right reasons."

"How do you kill someone for _a right reason?_"

Pedro sighed again. "Rafi and Blu killed Carlos… well, more or less, because Carlos kind of did it to himself—crushed under a large rock."

Nico looked strangely at Pedro, almost angry. "And this is supposed to make me feel _better_?"

"You didn't let me finish. I'll admit that they both are pretty upset about it. But they are getting over it, because they know that because of what they did—_sort of_—they were able to go back to their families. If they hadn't, they would have left behind their families. Two _loving_ families. Two _innocent_ families." Pedro gestured to Nico. "You did the same exact thing, only it was all you. We completely owe our lives to you. Not only did you save me, Rafi, Blu, and you, but also, you saved _their_ families." Pedro grinned. "And you have to admit… that's pretty awesome. You have _major_ bragging rights. And, everyone _majorly_ owes you one."

Nico thought about this for a moment. Finally, he looked up at the sitting Pedro from his lying down position, smiled, and said, "That is _so_ sappy…"

Pedro laughed. Suddenly, he stopped, and looked excitedly down at Nico. "I almost forgot! I got something for you!" He turned towards the cage door and pushed it open; Nico hadn't realized that it had been unlocked.

"It better not be another Peanut Butter Cup like last time!" he called after Pedro—who disappeared from his line of sight—while rubbing his badly aching stomach. "If I even _see_ food at this point, I'll puke!"

Pedro was suddenly right besides him again, hiding something behind his back. Grinning wildly, he said, "Guess what it is."

Nico groaned, but this time, it was somewhat playfully. "_C'mon_… do I have to?"

"Fine, I guess I can let you off the hook this once!" And with that, Pedro quickly revealed what was behind his back. Nico stared at it… and kept staring… and looked at it, puzzled… and stared some more. His mind almost didn't comprehend how it was possible, but nevertheless, it was right there. Sitting in Pedro's wings was Nico's bottle cap! And in what looked like perfect condition!

Pedro obviously noticed the look of astonishment on Nico's face. Gently tossing the bottle cap into Nico's chest, he explained. "You can thank Luiz for that."

Again, Nico looked puzzled. "_Luiz_? _He_ fixed this?" In all of his years of knowing the bulldog, Nico had never known Luiz, who lived in his owner's workshop, to _successfully_ fix something—only leave a trail of near disasters in his wake. Once, he almost fried Nico with a blowtorch. And nearly squeezed Pedro to death in a vice. And just missed Rafael with a nail gun. And narrowly avoided cutting Blu and Jewel in half with a table saw. That's why Nico avoided going to Luiz's shop too many times: he was too young to die.

Pedro grinned. "Yep, as surprising as it may sound. I told him your situation, and he said he'd help. So I left him the bottle cap—"

"What, you didn't stay with him while he fixed it?" Nico asked knowingly, smiling.

"Hey, man, I didn't want to die!" They both laughed, though this did cause some minor discomfort to Nico; he did his best to hide it. "Anyways," Pedro continued, "when I went back, it was all fixed. Apparently, he used a blowtorch… did a pretty good job on it actually. Oh, by the way, he hopes you're alive."

"Nice to know he cares…" Nico turned his attention to the bottle cap. Along the bottle cap, little creases were visible, either where the cap had bent when Thiago had stomped on it, or where Luiz had torched two split sides back together. However, from a distance of an inch or so, he couldn't even tell it was damaged.

The canary smiled. "He actually _did_ do a good job on this!" He lifted his head up a little, and placed the bottle cap on top of it. "Right where it belongs!"

* * *

><p><strong>One Month Later<strong>

Nico and Pedro walked along a beach crowded with humans and birds alike. In fact, it was the same beach—along with the same hot weather—where Thiago and the other two eagles had, just over two months ago, started this entire conflict. It seemed like an eternity ago.

Nico couldn't believe it. This whole thing, this murderous game of cat and mouse, had all started with Thiago telling them to get lost from this beach. It had started from something that easily could have been avoided if they had just complied. Now, Thiago and his gang were dead—all of them. Among the birds of Rio, a sigh of relief had risen, and Nico and Pedro were celebrated somewhat as heroes. Nico _should_ have felt relief, happiness, freedom.

Did he? _Nope_.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Thiago: that mean, violent face staring right back at him. Why did he feel so bad about killing him? Did the eagle deserve it? Yes. Did it make everyone's lives easier and safer? Yes. So why did Nico feel like he had just killed a child instead of a mean, coldblooded killer?

"Nico!" The voice suddenly cut into the canary's thoughts like a knife. Nico jumped. Turning, he saw Pedro, who had at some point stopped in his tracks, was a little ways behind Nico, looking strangely at the canary.

"What is it, man?" Nico asked a little distantly.

"I was calling your name for a full minute. You were totally zoned out. What happened?" Pedro walked up to Nico, and lowered his voice. "Is it about Thiago?"

For the past month, as Nico had been recuperating, he hadn't been himself. Nico had been lingering over the fact that he had killed Thiago. Pedro had explained to him that Thiago wasn't a nice guy, but was a murderer. In fact, Pedro had explained this several times, using Nico's own wound—inflicted by Thiago—as a perfect example more than once. Yet, even now, after Nico's stomach wound had healed, and the stitches had come out, Nico _still_ felt guilty. _Why_? Pedro had no idea.

Nico, in response to Pedro's question, nodded.

Pedro sighed, feeling sorry for Nico, yet at the same time feeling somewhat aggravated. "Nico, Thiago was a _murderer_. And it wasn't like you killed him for no reason! If you hadn't, we'd be dead! Rafi would be dead! Blu would be dead! Two families would be father-and-husband-less! He stabbed you in the stomach. He slashed my wing!" Pedro showcased his now fully healed wing. "He knocked out Rafi and Blu!"

"I know…" Nico cut in. "It's just that… I _killed_ him. No matter how many times I think it to myself, I can't get over it. I took a life, a living, breathing, feeling life!"

"Feeling bad about it makes you—dare I say it—a good bird."

"Still—"

Pedro cut off Nico before he could go off on another 'I killed him' tangent. "No 'still!' You know what, think of it like this. Whenever you think of the one bad eagle you killed, think of all of the good birds you _saved_. You saved possibly hundreds of birds! Not mean, cold, murderous birds like Thiago, but nice, honest birds who have families, kids, friends, lives." He smiled and gestured towards himself. "And of course, yours truly!"

Nico couldn't help but smile at Pedro's joke.

"Please, man," Pedro finished. "Stop beating yourself up. You did what you had to do. You didn't do anything wrong. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be here right now, walking on the beach, enjoying the sun, the sand… _the samba_." He grinned at this last part.

Nico sighed, and donned a smile, an _actual_ one—one of the only times Pedro had seen Nico _actually_ smile this month. "Well… I do _love_ samba…"

Pedro almost jumped for joy. "There's the Nico I know! He's back!" Suddenly, Pedro spied another, pretty fine looking red crested cardinal just a couple feet off, 'walking like she owned it' as he would say. "Look at that fine chick!" he said to the canary besides him. "If you'll excuse me, you'll get to see the _Crazy Love Hawk_ in action!"

Nico shook his head and smiled as Pedro walked off, 'stalking his prey'—another thing that he said.

Pedro was right. When he though of all of the good things that happened as a result of Thiago's death, not only did they balance out the bad things, but completely overwhelmed them. Maybe it was bad that something good came out of death, but still, he had saved lives—

_SLAP!_ Pedro's head snapped to the side as the female cardinal's wing made a loud and painful contact with his cheek.

Nico, again, shook his head and smiled.

—especially the one of his friend. And though he felt somewhat guilty still, maybe, just maybe, he could—

_OOF!_ Pedro got the wind knocked out of him as a large wing gave him a powerful jab to the stomach.

Nico winced, and rolled his eyes. Time to save Pedro from _another_ angry boyfriend.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh, Pedro! XD<strong>

**So, there it is, the end of the **_**Eagles Story Arc**_**, as I'm calling it. It has been a busy two months, and I thank all of those who supported this story, whether it was from the very beginning with my first story **_**Fight or Flight?**_**, or whether you started just recently. And I know this is a small chapter, but I think it wraps up the story quite nicely. :)**

**I hope to do another story, if my schedule allows me to do so. If I do, it'll probably be a simple, one or two-chapter story, nothing that big. I've been toying around with several ideas over the past months, and I hope to eventually see them realized on my computer. And, I'll take suggestions, if anyone has any ideas, though you would probably keep any really good ones to yourself… :)**

**And, I'll try to review more stories. I really do have a problem with that, due to being incredibly busy and being incredibly lazy.**

**I hope to see you all again in another story. Keep writing!**

**-JahMasterWikiwuki**


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